


Life on the Road

by quixotic_dreamer



Category: Impractical Jokers
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Fantasy, Relationship(s), Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-07-21 17:39:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 56,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7397101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quixotic_dreamer/pseuds/quixotic_dreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma and her band are plucked from obscurity to support the 'Impractical Jokers' on tour and it turns out to be a wild ride...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is something a bit different and is more of a slow burn. There will be smut but not as much as usual. Hope y'all like it!

I put my cell phone down on the table next to my couch and tried to keep the smile from my face as I turned to face my best friend and band mate Beth. 

“So…?” she asked impatiently, her blonde hair bouncing around her face as she fidgeted. “Spill it Emma!”

I was going to pretend that it had been bad news but I couldn’t stop a smile from appearing on my face. “We fucking got it!” I yelled excitedly.

Beth launched at me and I had just enough time to brace myself before she jumped into my arms with a squeal. “You mean it?” 

I put her down so that her feet landed on the floor with a thud and nodded. “They want to meet with us all tomorrow and go over the contracts.” 

A couple of weeks ago mine and Beth’s band ‘The Lanes’ had auditioned to be the opening act for the stars of a comedy tv show on their national tour. We were half of a folksy rock covers band and had been patiently waiting for a break for a long time. We played at all the open mic nights we could and had done hundreds of gigs in dingy bars and had even played at a couple of weddings and other events.

One of our band members knew a member of their crew and had got us an audition to be the supporting act on the comedy troupes national tour and while we had thought that there was no chance we would get picked out of the dozens of bands that I assumed had applied, I had just received a phone call and been told the good news that we had got it and would be heading out on tour in just over a week.

“We need to tell the others!” Beth urged, seeing me daydreaming. 

I grabbed for my phone and quickly called the 2 others in the band, Chris and Rick ,putting them on speaker so that Beth could hear them too. They were just as excited as we were and we arranged to go out tonight for some drinks to celebrate. 

“Are you going to tell Ross?” Beth asked me, referring to my boyfriend of 2 years. 

I grimaced and shook my head, deciding that I would leave it until tomorrow when he was due back from out of town. 

“Things not getting any better?” she asked sympathetically, on seeing my face fall.

I threw myself down onto the couch and looked up at her sadly. “He has just gotten so possessive lately. I can’t stand it. The only time I get to myself is when I am at work and when he is out of town on business.”

Ross had always been protective of me but lately he had even taken to coming along to our band practice and while I had always been grateful for the support it now felt like he was doing it more to keep tabs on me as opposed to being because he enjoyed being there. Things had been great up until the last 6 months but I suddenly felt stifled. He was a fair few years older than me at 37 and while this had never been an issue before I had found that lately being with him was making me feel much older than my 28 years.

We had met when I was back in stage school a couple of years ago. I had actually been working as an escort at the time, not the kind that slept with clients but the kind that accompanied guys that needed dates for some reason or other out to different events and functions. I had lost my family in an accident when I was younger and on being offered a place at a popular stage school I had realised that I needed to make some money and I needed to make it fast. One of the girls from my dance class had suggested joining the agency that she was with and it turned out to be nothing like I had imagined. While initially dreading doing it and thinking that there was no way that it could just be going out with guys without having to sleep with them I had found that it was indeed just spending time with men that were mostly lonely and need of some company.

Ross had always been really understanding about my past, knowing that it was just something that I had to do to keep a roof over my head, but lately he had starting throwing this in my face every time we argued, which was happening more and more at the minute. Even though I had stopped doing it ages ago, once I had finished at stage school he still felt the need to bring it up all the time and use it to berate me.

“Come on, let’s let our hair down.” Beth decided pulling me up off the couch and out of my thoughts, tugging me towards the bedroom. “Get changed.” 

I walked over to the wardrobe and started rifling through the clothes looking for something to wear as Beth sat on the bed watching me. 

“Have you actually watched the show yet?” she asked me referring to the show ‘Impractical Jokers,’ the cast of which we were soon going to be supporting on tour. 

I shook my head as I pulled out a short summer dress that I loved. “I haven’t, have you?” 

“I have.” She said, surprising me. “It’s really funny actually.” 

“I hope they are nice guys.” I mused as I undressed and slipped the white dress over my head.

“Chris reckons they are really nice guys.” Beth told me. “He met a couple of them on a night out a while back.”

“I suppose we will see for ourselves tomorrow in any case…” I grinned, thinking ahead to the meeting. “They are all going to be there apparently.”

“Come on,” Beth urged after I had pulled my bright red hair into a messy bun. “Let’s go out and get hammered, this is a big deal for us!” 

 

As usual we had ended up partying way too hard and by the time me and Beth had got back to my apartment the sun had been coming up. She had decided to stay over because she knew that I would probably sleep in otherwise and knowing my past history of spending days in bed recovering from hangovers this was a good thing. 

She woke me up half an hour before the guys were due to pick us up so after a quick shower I pulled some clothes on and grabbed a quick bowl of cereal before pulling on my favourite pair of Rayban Wayfarers and making my way down to wait outside of my building. 

“Morning sunshine.” Rick greeted as I climbed into the back of his car to find Chris looking back at me from the front seat, a wide smile adorning his handsome face.

“Feeling rough?” 

I shot Chris a look from over the top of my sunglasses and shook my head. “Why I am the only one of us that still suffers from really bad hangovers?” I groaned.

The 3 of them laughed heartily as Rick pulled effortlessly into the busy traffic and begun the short journey downtown. 

I looked out of the window whilst trying to calm my nerves but was interrupted when Beth reached over and placed a hand on my shoulder. 

“You ok?” she asked. I knew she wasn’t talking about the hangover.

“Nervous I guess.” I replied.

Rick shot me a brief glance from over his shoulder before turning his attention back to the road. “You and your nerves.” 

Chris joined in, turning round to face me from the front of the car. “Honestly, I have met 2 of them and they are really nice guys. You have nothing to worry about. This is going to be a blast.”

Regardless, I found my heart pounding heavily when we pulled into the parking lot and headed towards the doors. We checked in at reception and were directed to the 14th floor so we made our way over to the elevator and waited patiently for the lift.

It didn’t take long and we stepped inside and Chris pushed the button that would take us up the television offices. 

The others instantly broke into excited chatter as I looked in the mirrored walls and examined our reflections. Chris was in his usual uniform of slogan t-shirt and ripped jeans, his jet black hair falling over his face in a way that had me constantly reaching over to swipe it out of his eyes. Rick had actually made an effort and was wearing pressed chinos and a crisp white shirt. His short brown hair was newly cut and had been styled artfully to appear as if he hadn’t made any effort at all. His outfit painted him as preppy and boyish when the truth was he was definitely the womanizer out of the 2 of them. Beth had on what I knew to be her favourite summer playsuit and a battered old pair of converse sneakers. Her curly blonde hair had been left to dry naturally and framed her angelic face, swinging just above her shoulders as she tried but failed to keep still. She always had been the energetic one, even as I watched she was fidgeting and shifting from foot to foot. I had pulled on the first thing that I found in the wardrobe, which happened to be a pair of cut-off denim jeans and a white tank top. We had never been the type of band to co-ordinate what we wore but somehow it worked, we actually looked pretty good together.

The ping of the lift notified me that we were at the 14th floor so I took a deep breath and followed the others out into a surprisingly airy and pleasant reception area.

Before we could say anything a perky teenage assistant was upon us.

“The Lanes?” she asked, her tone friendly.

Rick flashed her a grin and I rolled my eyes, watching as the receptionist did a double take and colour flooded her cheeks. Rick got off on charming women, it was what he did best.

“Follow me.” She said trying to keep her eyes off of him and failing miserably.

We started down a corridor after the receptionist and I couldn’t help but laugh as Rick checked out her ass, giving it a lingering look before turning and shooting us all a wink. 

The receptionist, oblivious to Rick’s staring, stopped at a door labelled ‘Impractical Jokers’ and knocked before opening the door. 

With that she stood back and gestured for us all to walk inside. “Have a nice day.” She chirped before walking away.

The others did as they were asked and I heard movement in the room before being the last to walk through the doors and look around.

One whole side of the room was floor to ceiling windows which overlooked downtown and flooded the room with light. There was a radio playing softly in the corner, tuned to one of the more popular stations. The room contained 4 desks that were covered in assorted paperwork and other stuff but the room was dominated by a huge table, big enough to seat at least a dozen people. I saw that there were 4 guys sat around the table but on our entrance they had got up and were right now introducing themselves to the others. Chris was high fiving one of the ones he had met and the others were doling out handshakes. 

Trying to bolster my confidence I walked into the fray and was immediately approached by one of the guys. A shadow fell over me as I looked up at him and I couldn’t help but let my gaze rake his body, not disliking what I saw. He was tall and stocky, he towered over me by at least 6 inches, making me wish I had worn some heels so that he didn’t tower over me quite as much. As I looked up at him I noticed that he had the brownest eyes I had ever seen, which were currently crinkled at the corners in a wide smile. 

“I’m Brian. It’s nice to meet you.” He greeted. “Thanks for coming in today.”

I nodded and tried not to stutter with nerves. “Thanks for this opportunity.” 

“That’s our pleasure.” He replied grinning, reaching out to shake my hand.

As I took a closer look at him I noticed that his messy dark hair was flecked with grey but apart from that he could have been 35, not the 40 years old Rick had told me they all were. Brian’s hand curled round mine and pumped it eagerly before letting go and turning to the others, swiftly turning him attention to the others. 

I introduced myself to the others and I learned that their names were James, Sal and Joe. Luckily I got the sense that they were all pretty normal guys. I was half worried on coming here that we were going to be touring the country with a bunch of big headed celebs that classed normal people such as us as second class citizens but it seemed like they were actually really happy to meet us.

We soon had the introductions out of the way so the guys motioned for us to sit around the table with them. 

“Would you like something to drink?” Joe asked politely.

“Coffee would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Beth replied shooting me a wink. 

Everyone turned to face me and I felt my cheeks colour on seeing the inquisitive glances of the guys. Luckily Rick came to my rescue.

“We celebrated pretty hard last night.” He explained fondly. “Emma is feeling a little fragile.”

The 4 of them laughed and Sal caught my eye before nodding. “I know the feeling.” 

“Of course you do lightweight.” Brian chipped in. “That’s because you can’t handle the pace.”

Murr and Joe laughed before Murr turned to face us. “Things get a little crazy when we are out on the road.” He explained. “There is not much to do but drink.”

Rick shot us a wink before turning back to the guys. “Sounds like we are going to get on well.”

The morning passed in a blur and I was shocked when Sal looked down at his watch before getting out of his seat. “Well we have to go to filming. We are due on set at 2 o’clock.”

“So, I guess we will be seeing you soon.” Joe said following Sal in getting to his feet. “How about we all have something to eat this week to go over the last few details?”

“Sounds good.” Beth agreed with a nod. “I guess we should all exchange numbers.”

We took a few minutes to take each-others numbers and I couldn’t stop smiling as we bantered back and forth about the upcoming tour. I found myself relieved that they really seemed to be nice guys and couldn’t help starting to feel excited about heading out.

We had signed all the paperwork and it was determined that we were hitting the road in just over a week. Travel arrangements had been predetermined so now that they had run everything by us they just had to tell their team to go ahead and nail everything down. They had their own tour bus and while we could make our own travel arrangements if we wished, it was decided that we would take their offer of a bus to ride along with them. While we didn’t stand to make that much money from all of this, most of our expenses on the road were going to be covered, as were the hotel costs when we spent a night somewhere.

In the next week we had to have some official photos taken and they advised us that we probably wanted to look into hiring someone to take care of PR because being on tour with them was bound to generate a lot of interest. We all knew that this could be the start of something big for us and I thanked my lucky stars that Chris just happened to know someone on their team and bring about this chance.

“Well I guess we will see you in a few days.” Sal said as we got up and headed towards the door. 

I smiled up at them and nodded. “Thanks again for all of this.” 

“Our pleasure, it will be nice to have some company on the road.” Murr told me grinning. “This tour is going to be a blast.”

We said our goodbyes and soon found ourselves back in the parking lot. 

“Do you believe this?” Beth asked dreamily. “This is such a big deal!” 

I grinned and threw my arms around her. “I know! I’m so excited!”

“Now for the hard part…” she replied, to which I gave her a confused look.

“Telling work, and for you, telling Ross.” 

As soon as she said his name I felt a pang of guilt, I had totally forgotten about him. In all the excitement I had managed to keep him out of my head. 

“Want me to come with you?” She asked seeing my face fall, as was becoming usual when his name was mentioned. 

I shook my head and attempted a smile. This was something that I had to do on my own and I know that this was really not going to be easy…

 

“When do you leave?” Ross asked. His calm manner worried me. I could see a vein pulsing on the side of his forehead and knew from experience that this meant that he was trying to reign in his temper. 

“In 4 days.” I answered reluctantly. 

With this Ross jumped off of the couch and came to stand in front of me, close enough that I could smell his breath. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Look, I didn’t know how to tell you.” I told him flustered. 

“How long have you known?” he asked, his mouth pursing into a frown.

I considered lying but knew that he would see straight through me. “Only a couple of days, you have been stressed with work. I thought it would be best if I waited for a good time.”

“You have to be fucking kidding me!” Ross roared. “What if I don’t want you to go?”

I felt my eyes go wide as his words sunk in. “Ross, this is too good an opportunity to pass up.” I said frantically. “You know how much the band means to me.”

“So you get to go gallivanting off with your band and I have to stay here by myself.” Chris shouted, the way he said the word band clear in showing me how he felt about the others. He had never liked them and hated that there was such a big part of my life that he was not involved in.

“This could be it for us Ross.” I said trying to keep my emotions in check. “Or do you want me to keep working at the bar for the rest of my life?”

Ross visibly reigned in his temper and went to sit back down on the couch. “I hate being without you. You know that.” He told me, putting on a whiny voice.

I sighed, not at all surprised that he was switching tacks and trying to make me feel guilty. I saw this coming a mile off. “I don’t complain when you are away with work all the time.” 

“That’s different.” He replied snappily. “You know I hate being away from you.” 

“Do you?” I asked. “It doesn’t seem like it.” 

Ross closed his eyes and took a breath before standing up and coming to stand in front of me again. He moved his hands to place them on my shoulders and looking up at my from underneath his lashes. “You wouldn’t go if you cared about me.” 

I shook my head and realised that this was useless. He wasn’t going to be happy about this whatever happened so I decided to leave before it erupted into a row again and we both said things that we would regret. 

“Look, I’m going out.” I told him resignedly, stepping to move away from him. “I need some air.” 

Before he could say anything I grabbed my purse from the table and walked out of the door, hurrying down the stairs and out into the summer sun before he could say anything else. He couldn’t follow me because he had just got out of the shower and was clad in only a towel. 

 

“He asked you not to go?” Beth asked me half an hour later, disbelievingly. 

I nodded sadly and took the bottle of beer she offered me. “Said I wouldn’t go if I cared about him.”

Beth shook her head and took a swig of her beer. “That is crap Em. I’m sorry, but how long are you going to put up with his shit?” 

I shook my head and downed some of the beer. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it.” I decided suddenly, feeling my eyes fill with tears as I realised that she was right. “Can we just go out and have a good time tonight?”

It was tonight that we were meeting with the Jokers and going over some last minute details. 

“Sure thing darlin,” she agreed, her face transforming into a smile. “Want to shower or anything?”

I nodded and decided that a long hot shower was just what I wanted right now.

 

2 hours later we were on route to the bar and I was feeling a lot better. We had not mentioned Ross again and I had found my mood significantly improved. I decided that I was going to do this and nothing was going to stop me from enjoying it. This could mean big things for us and I was not going to let anything get in the way of that.

“Here we are.” Beth exclaimed, pulling me into a bar that I had never been in before. 

We walked into the bar and straight away I heard someone yell our names. We looked to the back of the bar to see that everyone apart from Sal was already seated around a massive booth. 

“Hey!” I exclaimed, suddenly feeling nervous. I fidgeted with my dress and pulled at the hem, noticing Brian’s gaze linger for a few seconds on my legs as we walked towards the table. 

“Sit down, we have already started without you.” Chris told me with a grin.

Rick moved along to make room for us and immediately filled 2 glasses of beer out of one of the big pitchers sat on the table before handing them to us. I noticed that he was once again dressed up in a crisp white shirt and a pair of fitted chinos and couldn’t resist a dig.

“Playing dress up again are we?” I asked, swigging from my glass of beer.

“Look who’s talking.” He retorted glancing down at my dress with a grin. 

Following his gaze I glanced down at the dress Beth had talked me into wearing and instantly regretted it. It was a lot shorter than anything I was used to and hugged my generous curves. I would never usually wear something like this, not least because Ross would have something to say about it. 

Turning my attention to the others I greeted the guys and asked how they all were.

“Excited!” Murr told me. “I’ve got a good feeling about this tour.”

It was just then that Sal appeared and the guys all berated him for being late as usual. 

“Fixing your hair?” Joe quipped. 

The others laughed and I noticed colour stain Sal’s cheeks. 

“I think you look great.” I told him suddenly, earning a grateful smile in return.

After shooting the guys mock angry looks he quickly sat down and joined in with the lively conversation flowing around the table. 

I let myself get caught up in the excitement and soon found myself laughing away as the guys had us in stitches with stories from previous tours. If the stories were anything to go by then we really were going to have a great time out on the road. 

After an hour we decided to order some food as we seemed to be drinking a lot and it made sense to line our stomachs if we were going to continue the night like this. We had just finished eating and the waitress was collecting the plates when I noticed a familiar figure walking towards us.

“Ross!” I exclaimed, just able to stop my mouth falling open in surprise. “What are you doing here?” 

It just so happened that I was sat on the edge of the booth so he approached me and pulled me out of my seat before pulling me close and meeting my lips in a brief but deep kiss. 

“I came to meet the guys.” He told me, as if it were obvious, plastering what I knew to be a fake smile on his face. “I wanted to thank them for offering you this opportunity.”

I felt my cheeks grew hot and noticed Beth looking at him sceptically but decided that now was not the time to make a scene.

“Guys, this is my boyfriend Ross.” I said trying my best not to meet Beth’s eye. “Ross, this is James, Brian, Sal and Joe.”

I managed to act normal and the guys clearly didn’t realise anything was out of the ordinary as they all reached over to shake his hand in greeting.

“Nice to meet you all.” He said sincerely, only me and Beth knowing that he was lying through his teeth. “You excited about heading out?”

I sat down beside him as the guys joined him in conversation but couldn’t help notice Chris, Beth and Rick all watching me.

I shrugged quickly and shot them a look before turning to Ross to tug his arm gently under the table.

“What’s the matter babe?” he asked turning to face me, his voice quiet enough that no-one else could hear.

“I just didn’t think you were coming out tonight, that’s all.” I said being careful to keep my tone neutral.

“I decided to come and celebrate with you.” He told me, pressing a kiss to my temple. 

The guys all smiled as if this was the nicest thing in the world but both me and the others knew that this was a ploy. Ross turning up had put a dampener on things and it wasn’t until I escaped to the ladies room that I let out a deep breath and felt myself relax. Putting on a show as if everything was normal was tiring. 

All of a sudden the door flew open and I looked up in surprise to see Ross stood at the door. 

“What are you wearing?” he said striding towards me and reaching down to finger the hem of the dress.

“Ross, you can’t be in here!” I told him, my eyes spinning to the door in case someone had seen him come in.

“I think it’s time to leave.” He replied, totally ignoring the fact that he was currently stood in the ladies room. He reached out to grab my arm but we both spun to look at the door as it came crashing opening again to reveal Beth.

She stood staring at him and I wondered how long it would be until one of them said something but I didn’t have to wait long.

“How about you get out of here and I don’t make a scene.” She suggested quietly, her tone angry. “Emma will be home tomorrow and you can talk to her then.” 

Ross went to say something but seeing the look in Beth’s eyes he obviously thought better of it. He turned to me and grinned, baring his teeth. “I expect you home later.” 

With that he turned and stalked out of the bathroom, taking care to shoot daggers at Beth as he walked past her. 

As soon as he was gone Beth rushed over and pulled me into a hug, her arms pulling my head down to rest on her shoulder. 

“Emma.” She sighed, reaching up to stroke my hair. “You deserve so much more.”

I bit back tears and extracted myself out of her arms, before looking in the mirror and swiping the hair off of my face. “I know. But he needs me.”

“You are staying at mine tonight.” She urged, biting her tongue to stop herself from saying anything else.

I nodded before turning back to her and smiling. “Come on,” I decided. “I’m not letting him ruin our night.”

True to my word I went on to have a great night. The guys were so much fun, it was like we had been friends for ages. They were funny and witty and constantly had us laughing with their outrageous stories. 

Rick and Chris were already managing to bond with them, having found that they had loads in common, from comics to sport and music to films. They found that there was always something else to talk about. By the time we rocked out of the club that we had ended up in it was well past 2 am and I was barely able to remain on my feet having spent a lot of the night on the dancefloor.

“I need bed.” I announced, my words coming out slurred. 

Joe placed his arm around my shoulder to steady me, being the only one of us that hadn’t been drinking. He didn’t drink but still managed to be the life and soul of the party.

“Come on sweetie,” he told me, smiling down at me. “I will drop you and Beth home.”

He helped me into his car and I gratefully rested my head on the back of the seat and closed my eyes. 

 

I opened my eyes to hear banging at the door and realised that I was not in my own apartment. As memories from the night before hit me I remembered that I had stayed at Beth’s. 

Pulling the duvet over my eyes to shield them from the glare of the sunshine streaming through the windows I stretched out my legs and listened to Beth pad across the front room, down the corridor that led to her front door. 

It wasn’t hard to guess who was at the door. 

“Is she here?” I heard Ross ask angrily. 

“Yes.” Beth answered honestly. “But if she wants to see you she will call you.”

Ross started to say something else to Beth but stopped when he saw me stood behind her. 

“It’s ok Beth.” I told her resignedly. 

She shot me a look and with a shake of her head she disappeared back around the corner.

“Why didn’t you come home?” Ross asked, confusion clear on his face. 

I shook my head but instantly regretted it when it made my head ache even more. “Why do you think?”

He sighed and run a hand through his wayward blonde hair, still pretending that he had no idea why I had not gone back to the apartment to face him. “Am I supposed to apologise for coming out to meet the guys that you are going to be spending the next couple of months with?”

“If that was the reason that you came out then no, you wouldn’t have to apologise.” I told him bluntly, my hangover causing me to be straight with him. “How did you know where I was anyway?”

He looked down sheepishly, his cheeks colouring slightly as he pretended to examine the hallway carpet and it hit me how he knew.

“You told me you would stop tracking my phone!” I said angrily. 

“I knew you wouldn’t answer if I called.” He replied as if this was a valid excuse.

“Look, please go.” I told him. “I will be home soon ok?”

With that I stepped back and closed the door, leaning my head on the door and waiting for my heartbeat to slow as I listened to his soft footsteps head back towards the elevator. I was tired of being made to feel guilty for things that I shouldn’t feel bad for. It was getting harder to pretend that things were ok with us and I knew that things would need to change moving forward if it was going to work out. 

For now I just wanted to concentrate on the tour and focus on making the most of this opportunity.

 

 

3 days later I looked around the apartment and quickly ran through the list of things that I would need before turning to Beth.

“I think I’m ready.” I told her with a grin.

“Let’s get this show on the road!” she replied excitedly. 

Just then we heard a car toot its horn from outside, signalling that our cab was here. Beth picked up her case and headed towards the door and while she was not looking I took the chance to place the note I had left for Ross on the bedside table.

He had left yesterday to go away with work and had not left in a good mood. He had accused me of being selfish in doing this and had ended up storming out. It was not how I had hoped things would go but there was nothing to be done about it now.

I had left him a note saying that I would call and that I thought that we should both think about what we wanted from the relationship going forward. 

“Come on!” Beth called, yanking me from my thoughts. 

I glanced around the apartment one last time before picking up my bag and heading out into the corridor, ready to head out into the morning sunshine and get in the cab. 

 

We pulled into parking lot of the television offices and the first thing I noticed was a massive coach with the guys faces on the side, emblazoned with the words “Jokers on Tour!’ on the side in huge letters. 

I couldn’t help laughing while we climbed out of the cab and collected our bags from the trunk before going to stand next to Chris, Sal and Murr, who were already stood staring. 

“That is really something!” I told Murr and Sal grinning. 

“Have you seen ours?” Chris asked me.

I shook my head and my gaze followed the finger he held out until I saw a coach half the size but still somewhat impressive parked behind theirs. 

“Oh my god!” Beth exclaimed. “I thought we would be in a minivan or something.” 

She dumped her bags next to mine and hurriedly headed towards it, waiting for the door to open before she climbed in. She called out a cheery greeting to the driver and hurriedly disappeared inside.

Chris and I followed and I felt my mouth drop open as I looked around the bus that we would be travelling in. It was by no means state of the art but there were 4 bunks and a kitchen area, a tiny bathroom and then an area at the back where we could chill out around a massive television and there was even a top of the range games console sat on a shelf underneath the television along with a DVD player. 

“Not too shabby!” Chris exclaimed looking around. 

“Are you kidding?” Beth replied, opening up cupboards and thoroughly checking the place out. “This is amazing! I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Just then we heard laughing and looked behind us to see Brian and Rick climb into the bus. 

“The look on your face!” Rick stated punching Brian lightly on the shoulder. 

“Well how would you like a photo of you looking goofy blown up on the side of a massive bus!” he replied wryly.

I joined in the laughter as they headed towards us but couldn’t help myself. “They could have picked a nicer picture….”

Brian looked up and broke into a smile. “Don’t even go there.” 

I laughed before turning to see Rick looking around in awe. 

“Is this really where we will be staying on the road?” he asked in disbelief.

I went over and loped my arm around his shoulders and grinned. “Pretty snazzy huh?” 

We spent a few more minutes looking around but soon went back outside where we saw that everyone was now here. 

“So it’s 11am now, we should be there at about 6 o’clock, in time for some dinner.” Murr said to the drivers. We had discovered quickly that while he would play the fool he was obviously the most organised out of the lot of them and was the one to go to if you needed to know something about the schedule. 

“Everyone got everything?” Joe checked.

We all looked at the pavement and checked all of the bags had been put in the buses before turning to each other.

“Let’s get this party started.” Sal announced grinning. “See you guys in a few hours.”

Grinning, we all climbed onto our respective coaches. I followed the others back to the area at the back of the bus and sat down on one of the couches to find that it was actually really comfortable.

“This is incredible.” Beth said, looking out of the window as the bus pulled into traffic. 

“Wow.” Rick exclaimed turning to us after turning on the tv. “This thing has TiVo!” 

Chris grabbed the remote out of his hand and scrolled through the channels, stopping when he came across TruTV.

As Impractical Jokers filled the screen we all looked at each other and grinned. 

Rick jumped off of the couch and headed towards the fridge where he pulled out 4 beers and made his way back to us and handed them round. “Here's to us!” he stated holding up his beer.

We all did the same and lifted up our beers before clinking them together and taking deep pulls. 

“So we are in a tour bus, watching Impractical Jokers, who we just happen to be going out on tour with.” Beth said. “Am I dreaming?” 

We all laughed and settled back in our seats and watched the show. I had never really watched it before and soon found myself laughing out loud at their antics on the screen. It seemed like this was all happening so fast. Just over a week ago we had never even met the guys and now here we were on tour and about to hit the road and perform the biggest gigs of our career yet.

After watching the show for a while the guys decided to play some PS4 and Beth went to sit with the driver while I headed to read in one of the bunks for a while.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first show goes well so everyone lets loose to celebrate...

Jolting awake I noticed that we were no longer moving and heard the others heading past the bunks and towards the front of the bus.  
I pulled myself out of the bunk and rubbed my eyes and looked to see the others step from the couch and disappear from view. I followed suit and walked to the doors, where I stepped onto the pavement to see that we were in front of a hotel. As it was the first night it was decided that we were going to stay in a hotel so that we could let our hair down and celebrate after the first show. 

I saw that the others were grabbing their things from the storage compartment and went over and did the same. With that we headed into the plush hotel where we walked over to the reception desk and told the concierge who we were. 

“Right, you are in rooms 213, 214, 215 and 216.” The check in clerk told us with a bored smile. “Enjoy your stay.”

I took the keys held out to me and was just about to say something when we heard a commotion by the doors. We turned to see 3 teen girls looking outside and watching as the large tour bus pulled up in front of the hotel. They started talking excitedly and one of them let out a squeal. A minute later the guys came walking into the hotel and walked straight up to the desk where they proceeded to check in. 

The girls didn't waste any time in approaching the guys so Beth, Rick, Chris and me stood watching as they asked the guys for selfies and basically fawned all over them. Brian was just signing an autograph when he happened to look up and catch me watching. He tipped his head towards the front desk and mouthed the word keys so I hurriedly approached the desk again and asked for the guy’s room keys. 

The concierge asked if we wanted all of the bags taken up so I nodded and watched as him and another bell boy trotted over to all of our luggage, loading them onto a cart before heading towards one of the elevators. 

The guys stood with the girls for a while but soon made it clear that they were in a hurry to get up to the rooms so they said their goodbyes before coming and joining us by the lifts.

Once we were safely inside the elevator I turned to them. “Is it always like that?”

Murr laughed and reached out to put a hand casually around my shoulder. “That was nothing.” He told us. “Sometimes we get recognized by dozens of people.”

“That’s why we check in so fast, so we don't end up stood there signing autographs all day.” Sal added smiling. 

I nodded and looked to the others wide eyed, wondering if the day would ever come when we got noticed by fans. 

The elevator soon opened and we found that we were all staying on the same floor so we all piled out of the lift and started to walk down the corridor. 

“So, half hour and then meet back here?” Murr asked as I handed everyone a key each. “We can head over to the venue together.”

We all nodded and for the first time I felt butterflies in my stomach at the thought of performing in front of such a big crowd. While we had performed hundreds of times this would be our first gig playing to upwards of a thousand people.

“Relax chick.” Beth said sensing my nerves. “We are going to do great.”

I nodded and tried to take some deep breaths, trying not to think too far ahead as we all headed into our rooms. 

Having only half an hour I had a quick shower and decided to leave my naturally wavy hair down and headed over to my case. Seeing my lucky dress I knew that I needed all the help I could get tonight and pulled the brightly patterned dress out of the suitcase. It was covered with brightly coloured birds and perfectly highlighted my slim but curvy figure. I pulled the dress over my head and headed towards the mirror, where I quickly did my make-up.

Standing back to examine the results I smiled at my reflection. I had made an effort not to put on too much make up so that I didn’t look trashy but had made sure to accentuate my large hazel eyes and full pouty lips. 

Hearing a knock coming from inside my room I whipped my head around to see where the noise was coming from and noticed that there was a door leading to an adjoining room. I hadn’t spotted it when I had come into the room. Guessing that it must be Beth in the room next to mine I padded over to the door and opened it to see Brian stood there. 

As I opened the door and he caught sight of me his eyes widened fractionally before he broke into a grin. “Wow Emma!” he told me. “You look great!” 

I couldn’t help it, my cheeks flamed and I broke into a grin. “Thanks Brian.” 

“So you ready to go?” he questioned. 

I nodded and walked across my room where I pulled on a pair of chunky wedges and grabbed my bag before turning back to him. With that I shot a glance into the bag to make sure I had everything before stepping into his room and pulling the door closed behind me.

“I didn’t realise we had adjoining rooms.” I said conversationally as we headed towards the door leading to the corridor. 

“Yeah, places like this always have adjoining rooms. I hope you don’t mind me knocking for you.” 

I smiled and shook my head, noticing for the first time just how cute he was when he smiled. It transformed his face and his eyes crinkled at the corners, taking years off him. Realising that I was staring I quickly shook my head and tried to make conversation.

“So you ready for the show?” I asked trying to take my mind off the fact that this would be the biggest gig we had ever played.

“Sure am!” he replied. “It’s always a blast to be back on stage.” 

As Brian pulled his door closed and locked it we saw that Rick, Chris, Murr and Joe were already waiting in the corridor. We walked towards them just in time to see Beth walk out of her room.

She had gone all out and was wearing skin-tight black jeans with a lacy white camisole, her curly hair pulled up into a topknot with a few strands falling down to frame her face. She looked incredible and by the look on the guy’s faces I wasn’t the only one to notice. 

“Looking good Beth!” Murr announced shooting her a wink.

‘I try.” She replied, returning his wink.

Just then Sal come rushing out of the room and looked around to see if we were all here. Seeing that we were his face creased into a frown. “I swear you guys always get ready early to make me look bad.”

I laughed before turning to everyone. “We ready?”

We started towards the elevator and I felt an arm snake around my waist and looked up to see a grinning Chris looking down at me. “How you feeling?”

“Excited. Nervous.” I told him.

He reached down to ruffle my hair before leaning and dropping a kiss on my cheek as the lift doors opened. “We’ve got this.” He smiled letting my walk in first. “We have done it a hundred times. It’s going to be great.”

I knew he was right but until I had sung that first note of the first song I always found myself panicking and this time there was so much more at stake. I couldn’t help wondering what would happen if the fans really didn’t take to us. 

“Stop worrying!” he scolded me, knowing as usual just what I was thinking about. 

I nodded and turned to the others, who were chatting excitedly. Before I knew it we were climbing into a people carrier and were speeding towards the venue. I listened to the others but stayed quiet until I noticed Sal watching me from the seat across from mine. 

“You ok?” he asked quietly. 

I nodded and tried to smile. “Nerves.” 

He nodded and I watched his eyes fill with sympathy. “I used to be really bad with anxiety but I grew used to it I guess.”

He reached over and gave my hand a brief squeeze and I smiled up at him before turning to look out the window.

All of a sudden I noticed that we were slowing and my eyes scanned the sidewalk until I noticed that we were pulling in behind what looked like a large theatre. My eyes landed on a huge sign of the guys above the doors and another sign stuck on top of it announcing that the show was now sold out. Looking towards the doors I was surprised to see that there was already a couple of hundred fans queuing even though the show was a couple of hours away. 

“Look at the queue!” Rick exclaimed, his eyes taking in the fans stood patiently. “The show isn’t for ages yet!”

I saw Brian and the others share a look and couldn’t help but feel a wave of panic as it hit home just how many people were going to be here. 

The mini-van pulled into a gated car park behind the venue and I found myself climbing out and following the others towards a double set of doors. Our stuff had been brought over earlier so all we had to do was complete a quick sound-check and then kill whatever time we had left. 

As we walked towards the door a burly bouncer opened the door for us and welcomed us to the venue. I shot him a smile as I trailed behind everyone else into the backstage area. We were immediately met by one of the organisers from the venue who ran through a few things and asked what we wanted to do first. 

“Shall we get the checks done?” Rick asked looking at me, Beth and Chris.

We all nodded and the organiser pointed the guys towards their dressing rooms before urging us to follow her through to the main room. 

It didn’t take long to get there and in a couple of minutes we found ourselves walking out onto the stage from behind the curtains. As I saw the auditorium for the first time I felt my eyes grow wide and heard Beth let out a squeal.

“It’s bigger than I thought it would be!” she said excitedly. 

I looked around and saw that the room was made up of 2 sets of tiers and then the seats on the floor level. It must easily seat nearly 2 thousand people. My heart began to pound and I felt someone grasp my hand.

“It’s going to be fine.” Rick said knowing that I would be starting to panic. They knew me so well.

I nodded, my eyes not leaving the microphone in the middle of the stage where in a couple of hours I would be singing to a room full of people.

As I took in the plush seats and the many different exits I heard a guy who was clearly the sound engineer come and start asking questions. The others answered them easily and got into positions behind their instruments. 

“Come on Em!” Beth yelled as she picked up her guitar. 

I nodded and walked as if in a trance to the microphone which I pulled off the stand and clutched tightly. 

‘We straight with the set list?” Chris checked from behind the drums. 

I looked over and saw Beth and Rick grin at each other before turning to look at me. I swallowed deeply before nodding and attempted to give them a smile. None of them said anything to reassure me, they knew the best thing to do was to just get going because as soon as we started I would be fine. 

I looked out to the stage and heard Chris count down from 4 before launching into a rhythm that the others quickly joined in with. Our first song was a rocky version of ‘California Dreamin’ and I waited for my cue before starting to sing. 

The first note was the hardest but as I heard my voice come booming out of the stereos around the room I felt myself relax and was able to get into the song. I imagined what the room was going to look like filled with people and felt excitement start to overcome my nerves as I got into it and started to wander around the stage, even turning to give the others a grin.

I finished with a flourish and turned to the others smiling widely. They all looked as happy as me and we all turned to the sound guy and asked him to make a few changes before we started with our cover of Tom Petty’s ‘American Girl.’ 

I had just started singing when I noticed Brian and Murr stood at the back of the arena, singing along with the song and nodding their heads in time with the music. I shot them a smile and tried not to let shyness creep back over me as they watched my every move. As the song finished they walked down the aisles towards the stage.

“That was amazing!” Brian called as they got close enough so that we could hear them. “Mind if we watch?” 

I nodded happily as the others talked to the sound engineer and asked him to make a few tweaks. 

We did a couple more songs and I couldn’t stop myself from glancing down to see Murr and Brian watching is avidly, singing along and clearly enjoying themselves. 

We had just finished our version of ‘Hound Dog’ when the engineer told us that he was happy with the sound and asked if we were satisfied. 

Beth yelled out that we were before the 3 of them came to the front of the stage where they threw their arms around me. 

“That was excellent!” Chris said, mopping a sheen of sweat off of his forehead. “This is going to be a great show!” 

As we walked down to where the guys were sat I felt my cheeks colour as they gave us a round of applause and Beth, Chris and Rick gave them a mock bow. 

“You guys are fantastic.” Murr told us. “The fans are going to love you.” 

“I hope so.” Chris said with a wink. 

We all laughed but stopped when we heard the door open and Joe poked his head through. “They want us out of here so they can start letting in.” he told us. 

I felt Beth link her arms through mine and let her pull me towards the door as the others followed our lead and trailed behind us. “Feel better now babe?” she asked me. 

I nodded and grinned, surprised to see that I felt more excited than nervous now. “I can’t wait!” 

We headed backstage again and were led to some dressing rooms where the guys decided that they wanted to do a last minute run through with this being the first night of the new show. We left them to it and Chris and Beth decided that they needed a drink so we were pointed towards the hospitality bar and headed to get a beer before we had to be back here and ready to go on. 

We had just ordered a round of beers when Beth shot us a smile and I got the feeling that she was up to something. 

“Shall we go and soak up some atmosphere with the fans?” she questioned. “I mean it’s not as if they will recognise us.”

Chris and Rick broke into smiles so knowing that I was outnumbered and that they would only talk me into it anyway I got to my feet and picked up my beer.

We headed through a door that led to the bars around the venue and I was shocked to see that the venue was swiftly filling up. We had just found some space by the end of a bar when I saw a group of women talking and pointing at us. I watched as they nodded at each other and walked over to us, waiting for us to turn and look at them.

“You are ‘The Lanes’ aren’t you?” one of them asked.

Chris looked the girl up and down and liked what he saw. “Sure are, darlin.” 

I laughed as he took a step towards her and put his arm around her shoulders, causing her face to colour. 

“Do you mind passing this to Q for me?” One of them asked me boldly, surprising me by thrusting an envelope into my hands.

“Sure.” I said smiling, wondering what it was.

They asked if they could have a quick photo with us and we smiled dutifully as they got a stranger to take a quick picture of us all stood together. 

By now there were quite a lot of people looking our way so I turned to the others and grinned. “Maybe we should go back to the other bar?” 

They nodded and we headed back the way we had come. 

“I didn’t think that we would be noticed.” Beth said nonchalantly. 

“Haven’t you looked at the social media pages?” Rick asked her surprised. “We have got nearly 3 thousand fans.”

Beth’s mouth fell open and she grinned. “That’s so cool!” 

Within minutes we found ourselves safely ensconced back in the private area and I saw that Brian and Sal were sat around a table so headed over and held out the envelope that the fan had given me.

“We got accosted by some fans. This is for you.” I said brightly, bending over in a mock bow as I handed it over. He merely looked at it and smiled before turning back to Sal.

“Open it!” I urged him before he could say anything. “I want to know what it is!”

Brian smiled at me and threw the envelope on the table between them, unopened. Sal saw a look of confusion cross my face and picked it up. 

“10 bucks says it is an invitation to a hotel room later and maybe even a picture.” He told me, waiting for Brian to give him the nod of approval before he opened it.

He pulled out a letter and opened it, quickly scanning it and nodding before handing it to me. I didn’t need to read much to get the gist. She was a huge fan and stated that she would love nothing more than a night of meaningless sex. As I read the crude words it sunk in how big a fan base these guys had and I looked at them with renewed interest. I realised that just like other famous people, comedians had groupies of their own. The fan that had written the letter made it clear in no uncertain terms just how far she would go for a night of passion. 

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and shot Sal a wink. “No picture though, I win.” 

Brian reached over and turned the open envelope upside down and watched as a small Polaroid picture fluttered to the table.   
Sal grabbed it and whistled. “Not bad!” 

Just then I noticed that Rick had come up to stand behind us and caught a glimpse of the photo. “Wow!” he muttered picking it up. “Nice rack.”

“Brian got some fan mail.” I told him laughing. 

“He has always been the one the fans go crazy for.” Sal told us jokingly. “God knows why.”

Rick threw his head back and laughed before setting the picture back down. “When does that start happening to us?” he asked jokingly. 

We spent the next hour chilling out and had something to eat, not that I managed to eat anything myself, my stomach was in knots with nerves. I was trying to keep calm when I caught an organiser walk into the room and make her way over to Beth and Chris, who were sat drinking at the bar.

“I think we are being summoned.” I told Rick. “Let’s do this!”

I stood up and felt the colour drain from my face as it hit home that we were mere minutes away from getting onto the stage. 

Sal and Brian looked up at me and a look of concern flitted across Brian’s face. “You ok?” he asked.

I nodded and shrugged, trying to play it down. “Just nerves, that’s all.” 

I turned to head over to the others and was surprised when I felt a hand on my shoulder. “You will be amazing.” Brian told me having got to his feet. He pulled me into a hug. “You’re incredible. Remember that.”

Instinctively I leant more into his embrace and rested my head on his shoulder. “Thanks.” I whispered before pulling back and giving him a smile. “See you after the show.”

I heard Beth and Chris call over to us so turned to Rick and let him take my hand.

As if in a dream I let Rick lead me over to the others where we started off towards the stage. I tried to calm my breathing and remember all of the successful gigs we had done before but it was no good. My heart was pounding and my legs were starting to feel incredibly jelly like. 

I noticed Rick glance at me from out of the corner of his eye and squeeze my hand. I squeezed back but let go seeing that we were now at the back of the stage, just behind the curtains. 

The organiser wished us luck, told us to listen for the announcer and with that she was gone. I felt myself pulled into a huddle by the others as we placed our arms around each-others shoulders.

“This is it guys!” Beth stated, her eyes bright. “Let’s fucking rock this place!” 

The guys cheered and I forced a smile as we heard an announcer call us on to the stage.

The others pulled back the curtain, walking onto the stage with Beth leading the way so I automatically followed and found myself on the stage, listening as the audience clapped half-heartedly. 

I saw the others take their places and focused on not tripping over my own feet as I walked over to the mic and took it down off the stand. 

“Hey y’all.” I said, hearing my voice come loudly over the speakers. “We are ‘The Lanes,’ hope you enjoy the set.”

With that Chris counted down a beat and the others quickly joined in. We started with a song with a bit of an intro so I didn’t miss my cue and I counted down the beats until I started to sing. 

Taking a last deep breath I launched into the opening verse of ‘California Dreamin’ and tried my best to act like I was not absolutely bricking it. As I reached the chorus without incident I risked a look at the crowd and was slightly calmed by the fact that the auditorium was only half filled. Deciding that I was going to enjoy this I let my body start to move with the music and started to wander around the stage. 

All too soon the first song was over but without a beat we started up with our next song and I heard the opening bars of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ come blaring through the speakers. Starting to get into the swing of things I looked once again at the crowd and let my glance head to the back of the stage where I was surprised to see that there were now fans crowding through the doors and rushing to their seats, their eyes on us as they walked to sit down.

I spun round to give the others a smile before turning my attention back to the crowd. As the song went on I saw more and more people start to clap along and move their heads with their music and felt my mouth curve into a grin. 

The song finished and I took a breath as the audience roared to life and started to applaud. Grinning, I walked to the front of the stage.

“So how you all doing tonight?” I asked and was rewarded when the cheers got louder. “You all looking forward to seeing the Jokers?” 

If the cheers had got louder before then on the mention of the Jokers they became deafening and I stifled a laugh as I turned to the others and gave Chris a nod to start with the next song. 

We were only on for just over half an hour but it seemed like seconds later when we finished our last song. I shook the hair out of my eyes and grinned out at the crowd as they cheered wildly. I felt someone snake an arm around my waist and looked up to find that the others had walked to the front of the stage where we all linked arms so that we could take a bow.

“Thanks so much!” Beth told the crowd after taking the mic out of my hands. “Don’t forget to check us out online and enjoy the show!” 

We turned around and made our way hurriedly off of the stage, grinning at each other as the applause went on behind us. As soon as we had gotten behind the curtain I jumped into the nearest arms, which happened to be Rick’s and saw Beth fling herself at Chris. We grouped together for a hug and I noticed with a grin that we were all wide eyed and beaming, sweat covering our foreheads as our heart beats started to slow and the adrenaline rush wore off. 

After a few minutes we decided to head back to the bar to get a much needed drink and I felt a pang of disappointment when the guys weren’t there to meet us.

We ordered a round of beers and were talking about how well the show had gone when we heard a door open and the guys walk in. 

“You guys are incredible!” Joe told us rushing over, closely followed by the others.

“Really, really great!” Sal added nodding. 

I felt myself scooped up into someone’s arms and noticed that it was Brian and pulled back so that I could see his face.

“I told you that it would be ok.” He told me grinning.

“It was a bit better than ok.” I laughed as he put me down. 

I felt myself passed to Sal and couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face as the guys hugged me and Beth in turn and high fived the guys. 

“I can’t believe we get to do this most nights for the next few months.” Chris said, still unable to wipe the goofy grin off his face. 

Beth took a long drink of her beer before putting it back down on the bar. “Where were you guys anyway?” she asked. “I didn’t see you in the crowd.” 

“We were in one of the boxes.” Murr told us smiling. 

“We wanted to enjoy the show without being hassled.” Sal told us walking to Beth and placing an arm around her shoulder.

Just then we heard the door open and the organiser shouted that the guys had 5 minutes and that they should head round to the stage.

“Can we go and watch from the box then?” Rick asked as they made a start towards the door. 

“Sure.” Joe told him. “Just follow the signs.” 

I grinned at them before wishing them luck and watched as they headed out the way we had just come.

“Let’s go.” Beth urged walking towards the other set of doors. 

We did as Joe had told us and followed the signs to the box and walked up some stairs to see half a dozen seats overlooking the stage. They were set back so that most of the crowd couldn’t see in so we settled in and waited for the guys to hit the stage. 

It wasn’t a long wait and within a couple of minutes the lights went down and a large video screen lit up at the back of the stage. The crowd started to murmur and fidget as a video showed some of the guy’s funniest clips from the show. The crowd roared with laughter and I found myself laughing along as the clips played. As the screen went black 4 spotlights lit up the stage and the crowd doubled in volume as the 4 of them come bounding excitedly onto the stage. 

“Hey!” Joe greeted, the 4 of them walking up and down the stage and waving and smiling out at the fans. 

“It’s amazing to be back!” Murr said as the cheers started to die down. 

“What did you guys think of ‘The Lanes?’” Sal asked the crowd and was met with more applause. 

“Weren’t they something?” Brian added. “I mean wow!” 

With that he looked up to where we were sitting and I could have sworn that he winked at me. I felt my heart skip a beat as I noticed not for the first time just how attractive he was.

The guys launched into their show and I found myself watching Brian walk around the stage and interact with fans. He was clearly playing up to his image and more than a few times I noticed him smiling out at women in the audience only to have them to dissolve into giggles and screams. 

The show was hilarious and just as our show had whizzed by I was surprised when the guys started to wind down and bring the show to a close. 

“That was so funny!” Beth stated leaning in to me as the guys turned to head off the stage. 

“I love how they bounce off of each other.” Rick added.

“I can’t believe we get to watch this every night for free!” I joined in excitedly. 

“Come on,” Chris urged. “Let’s head back down and see what the plan is.”

I grinned and nodded and we quickly made our way and walked back into the bar just as the guys come through.

Feeling like a fangirl I hurried over to them before clapping Sal on the shoulder. “You guys are amazing!” 

He smiled down at me and pulled me to the bar as the others congratulated the guys and made their way over.

“I think it’s time to celebrate.” Sal told me smiling before ordering a couple of rounds of shots. 

Apart from Joe, who didn’t drink and held up his soda, we raised our shot glasses and toasted the start of what was clearly going to be an incredible tour. 

“Let’s get this party started!” Beth yelled holding up her second shot. Everyone did the same and downed their drinks before we made our way over to a massive table where we all sat down.

“Is it always like that?” I asked Brian as we all settled into separate conversations.

“What do you mean?” he asked taking a swig of his beer.

“The women!” I told him, as if it were obvious. “They love you!” 

“Uh yeah…” he said looking down at the table in embarrassment. “It’s pretty crazy.”

“Don’t you take advantage?” Rick asked grinning, hearing what we were talking about and joining in.

Brian looked at me and I noticed that his cheeks had coloured slightly. “Nah, I mean, we did at first but it gets pretty old.” He answered. “They don’t care about us, they just want to spend a night with someone famous.” 

“Sounds good to me.” Rick joked shooting me a wink. 

I slapped him playfully before turning back to Brian. “So how do you handle it all?” I asked interestedly.

“It helps to have each other.” He told me. “Anytime one of us gets too big for their boots the others always bring them back down to earth.”

I laughed and clinked my glass against his. “Well, here is to staying grounded.” 

Brian finished his beer before putting it back on the table. “You will learn what it’s like soon enough, I get the feeling you are going to be huge.” 

As he said this he held my gaze and I found colour flooding my cheeks once again. What was it about this guy that made me blush so much? I felt like a teenager around him. I shook my head and managed to drag my eyes from his and smiled across at Rick. “I hope so,” I grinned. “I could do that every day for the rest of my life.” 

All of a sudden Murr leaned over and shushed us all with a hand in the air. “Come on, finish up.” He urged, motioning to the drinks left on the table. “Let’s head back to that club we found last time.” 

The club turned out to be a member’s only club one of the crew knew and as luck would have it, it was only around the corner from the venue. We walked in to find a large booth already set up for us so we took a seat and I looked around the expansive club. 

I had never been anywhere like this before in my life. It wasn’t overly big but it was decorated in dark hues and every table was set away from the others so that you could enjoy yourself without being bothered by the people around you. The table was already covered with assorted drinks and there was a bucket containing what I noticed was expensive champagne next to the table. 

“This is incredible!” Beth said, kneeling up on her seat so that she could look around, grabbing a beer in the process.

“There are different acts on every night. We had a great time last time we were here.” Murr told her grinning at her enthusiasm.

“What’s on tonight?” Chris asked.

The guys shrugged so we settled around the table and it was not long before a scantily clad server came over to ask if there were any drinks that we wanted that were not already at the table. 

Sal asked for a bottle of tequila, some shot glasses, lemon and salt.

“I think things are going to get messy.” Brian muttered from across the table.

“Hell yeah!” Rick agreed from next to me. “Let’s start as we mean to go on.”

We got to drinking and soon got into the swing of things and it just happened that tonight there was a rock covers band on. They took to the stage not too long later with a flourish and launched into a pretty good version of an old Guns’n’Roses song earning loud cheers from our table and all of the tables around us. 

Not that we would have cared if they weren’t that good, we were a couple of bottles of tequila down by this point and were already starting to feel the effects. The song came to an end and they started up with a popular Aerosmith song and I jumped to my feet. 

“I love this song!” I announced. “Anyone coming to dance?” 

Rick, Beth, Joe and Murr got to their feet excitedly and we rushed over to the dance floor where we started to move our bodies in time with the music. The dance floor as busy but not what you would call crowded so we had plenty of room and proceeded to throw ourselves around with abandon. 

A couple of songs later everyone but Rick and me went to sit back down. We decided to stay so I gave him my hand and let him lead me around the floor. We moved with ease having danced together many time and I let my arm rest around his waist as he leaned into my ear.

“This is fucking crazy!” he shouted over the band.

I leaned back, catching his eyes, and nodded before moving closer to his ear. “I feel like I'm in a dream!” 

We danced for a couple more songs but after a while I realised how hot I was and decided to head back for a drink. Rick followed suit and got back to the table before me and handed me a bottle of beer which I proceeded to drain in one long pull.

“Having fun?” Joe asked taking a sip of his soda. 

I nodded frantically and moved closer to him so that I could be heard over the music.

“This is amazing Joe.” I said, realising with a grin that I was slightly slurring my words. “I can’t believe that less than a week ago I was back at work at my job tending bar.”

“Somehow I don’t think that you will be back there anytime soon.” He replied smiling. “You put on one hell of a show.” 

“Look who’s talking,” I replied holding up my beer. “You guys are so great together.”

Joe smiled and I suddenly noticed that the band were playing one of my favourite songs so I drained another beer and climbed back to my feet. This time it was only Sal and Rick that came with me and we danced for a while before I decided that I needed another drink. 

As I headed off the dance floor I suddenly realised that I was unsteady on my feet and way too hot. I got back to the table but didn’t sit down, putting my hands flat on the booth to steady myself as I waited for the room to stop spinning. 

Looking up I noticed Brian walking back towards the table from the bar. As soon as he saw me he picked up his pace and placed the shots he had been carrying down on the table, coming to place an arm around my shoulders. 

“You ok?” he asked, bending down so that he could meet my eyes. 

“I’m just a bit dizzy.” I answered shaking my head. “It’s just hot in here, that’s all.” 

With that he leaned over to Beth and said something in her ear before turning back to me. “Come on.” He said putting his arm around my waist to steady me. “Let’s go and get some air.” 

I smiled gratefully and let Brian lead me back towards the entrance, watching as he thanked the bouncer that held the door open for us. 

As soon as I took a breath of fresh air I sighed in contentment but stumbled when I suddenly felt dizzy and noticed that everything had started spinning again. 

I took a step towards the nearest wall to steady myself but knew that I was not going to make it. I felt my legs give out and everything went black.

 

I opened my eyes and realised straight away that I was in a cab. Feeling someone’s arm around me I looked up and grinned on seeing Brian looking down at me. 

“Hey.” He said. “How you feeling?”

“What happened?” I asked drunkenly.

“You passed out.” He told me. “How do you feel now?”

I giggled and reached up to swipe some hair out of his face, it was covering his eyes. “Pissed.”

Brian laughed and leaned over to wind the window down to let some fresh air in the car. “Have you not eaten today?” 

I shook my head but quickly stopped when it started everything spinning again. “Nerves kill my appetite.” 

Brian shook his head and gave me a mock frown but it turned to a grin as we pulled up at what I recognised as our hotel. 

He climbed out and reached for my hand, taking it in his and pulling me gently out of the cab before paying the driver. With that he led me into the hotel and I stumbled next to him, giggling as my legs kept misbehaving. 

It took a while to get me over and into the elevator but as soon as the doors closed I leant on the wall and looked up at Brian, who still had an arm around my waist. He was so manly. With his broad shoulders and his beard he was the opposite of Ross but all of a sudden I itched to reach up and run my hands over his shoulders to see if they were as defined as they looked. Sensing me watching him he looked down and I saw one side of his mouth curl into a grin.

“You are such a nice guy Brian.” I slurred. “I wish I had a guy like you.”

Brian smiled indulgently at me, shaking his head with a chuckle. “You really need to learn to eat before a night out Emma.”

I laughed but stopped when I suddenly started to feel nauseous. Brian instantly noticed the look on my face. “What’s wrong?”

I held a hand to my mouth and started towards the rooms. “Feel a bit sick.” I mumbled.

Brian quickly pulled us out of the elevator as it got to our floor and hurried down the corridor where in a matter of seconds he had the door open. I noticed vaguely that I wasn’t in my room but didn’t have time to care as I pelted to the bathroom where I kicked the door closed behind me and vomited spectacularly into the toilet.

Once I was done I felt a lot better. I stood up and walked to the sink where I rinsed out my mouth and debated brushing my teeth. Knowing that it would be gross to use Brian's toothbrush I had to settle for gargling with some toothpaste. When i was done i gulped down some water thirstily before opening the door. Brian was sat on the bed watching the tv but he turned to look at me as I come tottering out into the bedroom and kicked my shoes off.

“Feel better?” he asked with a smile. 

I nodded tiredly as it hit me how knackered I suddenly was. Not even having the energy to be embarrassed I walked over to the bed, where I stretched out and pulled a pillow underneath my head. “Need sleep.” 

The last thing I heard before I passed out was Brian’s quiet laughter.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma and Brian grow ever closer...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you are all liking it so far...

I jolted awake suddenly and was met with darkness, the only light coming from the tv, which was glowing softly. The only sounds in the room were also coming from the television, coming from what looked to be an old western. Memories from the night before washed over me, bringing with them a sense of shame. Realising swiftly that I was not in my own room I whipped my head to the side, where I saw Brian stretched out next to me on the bed. 

He looked much younger in his sleep, his face relaxed in slumber, his chest rising and falling gently. He had fallen to sleep on his back, one arm resting beside him as the other propped his head up. He must have fallen asleep watching the tv. 

I felt a pang of affection as I remembered the way that he had taken care of me last night but felt another rush of shame as I realised that he must have heard me throw up. 

As blood stained my cheeks I pulled myself off of the bed quietly and tiptoed slowly to the door adjoining our rooms. Luckily I had forgotten to lock it and opened it gently, looking over my shoulder to make sure that Brian was still asleep. Seeing him still snoring softly I closed the door as softly as I could and headed over to the unmade bed, sitting down and wondering belatedly who had my bag. 

Not knowing what room everyone was in and not knowing what the time was I decided that I couldn’t exactly go looking for my stuff and could probably do with a couple more hours shut eye anyway. Pulling the pillow beneath my head I decided that I would worry about everything tomorrow and let my eyes close once again.

 

Next thing I knew a loud series of knocks caused me to awaken. Opening my eyes I saw that it was now light so it had to be morning. Praying that the knocking was coming from the hotel room door and not Brian’s room I pulled myself off the bed and was dismayed when I the knocking sounded once again and realised it actually was Brian.

Shame washed over me once again as I opened the door and I knew that my cheeks must be glowing. 

“How you feeling?” Brian asked, fighting a grin.

I opened the door and gestured for him to come in a noticed that he had hold of my bag. He must have picked it up on our way out of the club. 

“Really embarrassed.” I said, forcing myself to meet his gaze. “I’m really sorry I ruined your night.” 

He laughed and went to sit down on the unmade bed, placing my bag down next to him. “Don’t worry about it.” 

“No, really.” I went on, not knowing where to look. “You shouldn’t have had to look after me like that.” 

“Emma stop.” He said putting his hand up, laughing lightly. “Forget about it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh along with him as I dared to look at him and saw that he clearly wasn’t that bothered. Thank god he was such a nice guy. “Well thanks Brian.”   
Just then my stomach grumbled and I realised that I hadn’t eaten for nearly 24 hours. 

“I guess I need to eat something.” I told him sheepishly, seeing that he had heard it. 

Brian grinned and got to his feet, walking over to close his door before turning back to me. “Come on then.” He urged me, smiling slightly. “The others won’t be up for a while, I got a text from Sal saying that they were partying until dawn.” 

I shook my head laughing. “That sounds about right. What time is it anyway?” 

“Half 8.” He answered. “We don’t have to leave until 11am so I don’t think we will see any of them for a while yet.”

I quickly brushed my teeth, pulling my hair up into a ponytail before pulling on some sandals. Telling Brian I was ready I grabbed for my handbag before following him out the door. 

We stood in the elevator waiting for it to go down and I vaguely remembered being in the lift last night and prayed that I didn’t say anything embarrassing. I was known to get rather loose lipped after a few drinks.

“You ok?” Brian asked, seeing a look of concern flit across my face.

“Just thinking about last night.” I told him honestly. “I’m sorry if I was hard work.”

He laughed heartily before reaching over to run a hand down my arm. “You were adorable actually.” 

“Even the throwing up?” I quipped.

“Well maybe not that.” He replied wryly. 

We made our way into the lobby as the elevator reached the ground floor and followed the smell of coffee to the restaurant where I noticed happily that it was a serve yourself breakfast. Sipping from the coffee that Brian poured for me I motioned over to the buffet and we got up to dish ourselves some food. 

Knowing that my hangover was due to kick in any minute I decided to pre-empt it and fill my stomach with as much bacon and eggs as I could. I heaped my plate full and picked up some toast before heading back and noticing that I had double the amount Brian had.

“Hangover prevention.” I told him grinning as he noticed how much food I had gotten. 

“You’re going to need it.” He replied with a wink. 

We ate in companionable silence, the only sounds to be heard coming from our table were my murmurings of appreciation. 

Surprisingly I finished everything on my plate and had just put down my cutlery when I noticed Brian watching me with a smile. 

“I’m impressed.” He told me grinning, finishing the last of his coffee.

“I needed that.” I told him, sitting back and reaching for my orange juice.

We started talking about the next place we were heading too and I was surprised to notice that I didn’t feel at all embarrassed about last night. I had expected things to be awkward but was glad to see that Brian had taken it all in his stride and not made a big deal of it. 

Brian was just telling a story about the town we were headed to next when I heard my phone ring and pulled it out of my bag. 

Seeing that it was Ross I debated ignoring it but knew that he would only hound me until I answered. 

“Sorry, I’ve just got to take this.” I told Brian with a frown, pushing the button to take my call and reluctantly putting the phone to my ear.

“We need to Skype, right now.” Ross barked when I answered the phone.

I was about to say something back to him when I heard the click that notified me he had hung up on me. I put the phone back into my bag and looked up at Brian sheepishly. “I’ve got to head back to the room.” I told him. “I’ll see you in a bit.” 

Not giving him chance to reply, I I hurried up to the room and pulled my laptop out of my bag, quickly connecting to the hotel’s Wi-Fi and wondering why the hell Ross had hung up on me. 

I logged into Skype and waited for Ross to connect and was not surprised when less than 5 seconds later I saw the incoming call.

“What’s going on?” I asked him angrily. “There was no need to hang…”

I was cut off as Ross held up his phone to the screen and showed me an image. “What the hell is this?” 

I looked closer and felt my mouth drop open when I saw that the picture on the screen was one of me and Brian. He had his arms around me and it looked like we were about to kiss, so I had to guess that it taken was just before I passed out and what he was actually doing was holding me to steady me. Ross gave me a minute to look before he scrolled to another picture and held it back up to face his laptop camera. The next photo had been taken when I had passed out, I was in Brian’s arms. My face had fallen forward and my hair had covered me so you couldn’t actually tell that I was unconscious. 

“What the fuck are you playing at?” Ross shouted, placing the phone back on the table next to him. 

“Hang on a fucking minute, you do not get to call me and shout at me like this, without even asking what happened!” I retorted angrily.

Ross sneered and shook his head. “It’s pretty obvious what happened. You found yourself a lover boy.” 

I shook my head and wondered what I could even say when he was in a mood like this. “Where did you even see the pictures anyway?”

“Twitter.” He told me. “Not that it fucking matters.”

“For your information, I passed out because it was hot in the club and I hadn’t eaten all day because of my nerves.” I yelled. “But thanks for the fucking trust.”

“I want you to come home.” Ross told me. “Now!” 

I laughed and shook my head, trying to ignore the first signs of my hangover as his shouting caused me to wince. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.” 

“I think I do!” he replied, his eyes flashing angrily. 

I looked into the screen and realised that it was hopeless to talk to him while he was like this. “You know what, how about you contact me when you are ready to apologise.” 

With that I clicked the disconnect button and put down the screen, standing up and putting my head in my hands. I was just about to put the laptop back in the bag when I heard a soft knock at the adjoining room door. 

Realising that Brian must have heard everything I walked over to the door and opened it. The sympathetic look on his face was my undoing and I felt my eyes fill with tears. 

Brian noticed that I was upset and crossed the space between us and wasted no time in pulling me into his arms. 

“Emma.” He soothed as the tears finally started to fall. “It’s all going to be ok.” 

I hiccupped noisily as I cried and let Brian rub my back, leaning into his embrace gratefully. “I’m sorry you had to hear that.”

“Don’t be Emma.” He replied softly. “I’m glad I’m here.” 

I nodded into his shoulder before pulling back and looking up at him. His eyes showed his concern and I noticed that his forehead had pulled together in worry. “You must think I am such a mess.” I groaned. “First last night and now this.”

He shook his head and swiped a strand of hair out of my face. “I don’t think that.” He told me genuinely. “I think you deserve more than being spoken to like that.”

As he looked at me I noticed his glance drop to my lips and my tongue flicked instinctively over my bottom lip as I felt my face move fractionally towards his. 

Thoughts of Ross disappeared as I realised that we were going to kiss and I closed my eyes, preparing myself to feel his lips against mine.

His lips were mere millimetres away from mine when there was a knock at my door. We sprang apart as if stung and our eyes met. 

“I’m sorry Emma. I shouldn’t have. You are in a relationship.” Brian said hurriedly. 

I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted when the door knocked again. Brian smiled sadly and took a step back towards his room as my gaze flicked between the door and him.

“Brian, don’t go.” I pleaded, wishing whoever was at the door would go away.

He stopped but we suddenly heard Beth at the door. “Emma, open up!” she yelled, impatience clear in her voice. 

Brian shook his head. “We’ll talk later.” 

He walked back into his room and shut and locked the door so I headed to the hotel room door and opened the door to see Beth standing there waiting. “What took you so long?” she asked, hands on hips. 

“Don’t ask.” I muttered opening the door wider so that she could walk through. 

“How you feeling?” she asked once I had closed the door. 

I wondered whether I should tell her what just happened but decided that it was best to keep this to myself. I didn’t want Brian to feel awkward and I knew that Beth wouldn’t be able to keep this to herself. 

“Fragile.” I told her with a grin. “But not as bad as I thought.” 

“Well get ready. The bus will be outside in half hour.” 

I groaned and motioned towards the shower. “I better shower then. I’ll meet you downstairs.” 

She nodded and bounced out of the room, leaving me to sit on the bed with a sigh and look at the room connecting mine and Brian’s room. I debated knocking and talking about what happened but my head was starting to pound and I literally had less than half an hour to get ready and be downstairs. 

Deciding that I needed a pick me up I put the stereo on and tuned it into a local rock station. I turned up the music so that I would be able to hear it from the shower and padded through to the bathroom, where I stripped off my clothes and stepped under the cool stream of water.

Half an hour and a couple of painkillers later I was feeling a lot better and picked up my bag to make my way downstairs. I had just locked the room behind me when I heard Murr call my name.

“Hey sweetie, how you feeling?” he asked smiling.

“Better than I deserve.” I grinned back. 

We chatted all the way down to the lobby but as the elevator dinged I felt my heart begin to pound. We headed over to reception to replace our keys and I readied myself to see Brian. 

The check-out process didn’t take long so minutes later we found ourselves heading outside onto the sidewalk. I pulled my sunglasses down to hide my eyes and scanned the pavement but saw that only Rick was stood on the sidewalk playing on his phone. 

“Where is everyone?” I asked Rick.

He turned to face me and pulled me into a hug, reaching up to ruffle my hair affectionately. “Hey! She’s alive!” 

I disentangled myself from his arms and swatted him playfully on the arm. “Seriously… where is everyone?” 

“They are all on the coaches already.” He told me shooting a look at his watch. "We need to hit the road."

I nodded but couldn’t help sneaking a glance at the guy’s bus and wondering if Brian had come down early on purpose to avoid me. Wondering if he was watching me I decided to brazen it out and turned to Murr.

“See you in a few hours.” I told him brightly. 

“Catch you later.” He replied with a smile, disappearing onto the bus. 

Turning back to Rick I noticed that the driver had put my bags in the hold so climbed into the coach where he was now sat waiting. “Looks like it’s time to head off.”   
He grinned and reached for my hand, pulling me towards the bus and heading up the steps.

 

“We are here!” I yelled towards the back of the bus. 

I had spent the majority of the journey sat next to the driver. Luckily for me he wasn’t one for talking so I had some time to sit and think. By the time we had pulled up in front of the venue I had realised that I was worrying over nothing. The only reason Brian had gone to kiss me had been because he clearly felt sorry for me, standing in front of him looking all doe-eyed. I would see how he acted and take it from there. It was no big deal.

 

Beth, Chris and Rick came bounding down the bus and we waited for the doors to open before letting the driver climb out and open the hatch that contained our stuff. 

I grabbed my bag and had just turned to face the venue, which was mercifully quiet seeing as it was hours before the show, when I heard the guys come out of their coach. Putting a smile on my face I walked towards them and watched as they grabbed their bags out of the hold. 

“I need food.” Sal stated to no-one in particular, walking towards the venue doors. “We going out for something to eat?”

I looked towards the others to see them all nodding and couldn’t help my eyes lingering on Brian. He was wearing a cap that was pulled low over his face and he had covered his eyes with a pair of sunglasses. Wising that I could see his eyes I watched as he sensed me looking at him and his glance flicked up to mine where he gave me a quick smile before looking away.

I turned to see Rick, Chris and Beth follow the others towards the doors so trailed behind them, where I saw that someone from the venue had come to take us to the dressing rooms. 

We dumped our stuff and decided that we would head to a Mexican restaurant around the corner to get some food before heading back to complete the sound checks and kill time before the show. There was no hotel tonight as we had a long drive ahead of us to the next city so we were getting on the buses straight after the show and driving through the night until we reached the next town. 

We had just set off to the restaurant when I felt a hand on my arm. Expecting it to be Beth I looked up with a smile and was shocked to see that it was Brian. 

“Uh hey.” I said nervously, my wit deserting me. “You alright?” 

He nodded and pulled off his sunglasses so that I could see his eyes and I could tell that he was flustered. “Look I don’t want things to be weird with us.” He started.   
I went to say something but he held up a hand to stop me. “I’m sorry about before. You are with someone. It was wrong of me.” 

“Brian things with Ross are…” 

He cut me off again with a smile. “Let’s leave it at that ok?” he replied, his words a statement more than a question.

My mouth fell open in surprise but seeing as we were now at the restaurant I simply nodded and smiled. “Sure thing.” 

He grinned at me and pulled me into a quick hug and I resisted the urge to pull him closer, on one hand happy that things weren’t going to be awkward but on the other hand wanting to say more. 

Until he had gone to kiss me I had made an attempt not to admit to myself how attracted I was to him but after the way he had taken care of me and the way he had looked at me when I was upset, well it was impossible to deny how I felt. The feelings had seemingly come out of nowhere but now I found myself watching him as he followed a waitress over to a table and wondered what would have happened had Beth not turned up at my door.

“Come on space cadet.” Chris said, gently coming up behind me and pushing me into the restaurant, snapping me out of my thoughts. 

I walked over to the others and noticed that the seat next to Brian was free. Unable to resist being near him I sat down next to him and shot him a smile. 

“How was the drive?” I asked to make conversation. 

“Stifling.” He joked pointing at Sal, Joe and Murr. “These idiots are forever bickering.”

“Travel with them then.” Murr pouted jokingly. 

“Maybe I will.” Brian told him laughing. 

I joined in and it wasn’t long before we were all chatting around the table. I found my eyes drifting across to Brian whenever I felt that no-one else was looking until it just so happened that when my gaze flicked over to him I found him already looking at me. His mouth curled up into a smile as I whipped my head away hurriedly. I didn’t risk glancing over at him again. It was like a switch had been flicked and I was unable to tear my gaze away from him. I idly wondered what it would be like to feel his lips on mine and was drifting off into my thoughts when I realised that Joe was talking to me. 

“Emma! Anyone there?” he called.

I felt heat colour my cheeks as I turned to look at him, my eyes flicking to Brian in the process to see him smiling.

“Sorry, what was that?” I asked.

Everyone laughed and I cursed myself for being such an air head. 

“You having dessert?” he asked.

I shook my head and reached into my bag for some money as Rick leaned over the table towards me. “Thinking about what you want for your birthday?” 

He turned to the others with a mock sigh. “She never comes up with anything for us to get her.” He told them. “It's her birthday in less than a week.”

“You always do ok.” I replied with a smile. “There is always another horror box-set or vintage band t-shirt you can get me.” 

“You and your horror.” Beth said shaking her head. “I don’t get it.”

Brian put his hand on my arm and smiled. “I get it. I love horror.” He admitted. “In fact I bought some of my favourites for the road.” 

“There you go, you can watch something with Emma in their bus tonight and let us bicker in peace.” Sal decided grinning. 

“Sounds good.” Brian replied, holding my gaze. I felt my cheeks start to colour and had to look away as the others continued chatting around us, luckily not noticing anything out of the ordinary as I fought to drag my eyes away from his.

My mind conjured up images of us alone on the tour bus so I shook my head to clear my thoughts and tried to ignore the pounding of my heart as the others started to get up and make a move towards the door. 

As we headed back into the sunshine I headed towards Sal and smiled up at him as he held out his arm for me to link through. 

“So exciting night last night?” he said with a smile. 

I whipped my head to his. “What makes you say that?”

“Well Q told me you fainted on him.” He told me as if it were obvious. “That happen often?”

I grinned and chuckled lightly. “Too much beer and not enough food makes Emma a drunk girl.” I quipped. 

“I’m sure you will be able to handle it after a couple of months on the road with us.” He replied grinning. 

We chatted away all the way to the venue and from what I could tell Brian hadn’t said anything to him about what happened this morning. Either that or Sal was really good at keeping things to himself. 

I was feeling good by the time we got into the venue and was happy to note that my nerves were nowhere near as bad as we headed onto stage to do the sound check.

We ran through it in no time and were all in good spirits when we come off of the stage and headed to the dressing room we had been allocated. It was next to the guy’s and we walked past to see them all lounging around messing on their phones and generally killing time. 

“I’m bored.” Joe decided jumping to his feet just as we walked inside. “Anyone want to come and explore?”

I nodded and grinned, grateful for the distraction. I was never good at sitting around killing time and knew that the more time I spent doing nothing the more time I would have to get nervous. 

Joe threw his jacket onto one of the couches and come to stand next to me, looking back to the others, who were now all crowded into the room sitting not doing much.

“See you in a bit.” I told them as Joe heading out of the dressing room.

“Be back in 45 minutes.” Murr shouted as i followed Joe's lead and started to wander down the corridor. 

There were plenty of people milling around but no-one really bothered us so we walked around, poking our heads into various rooms and being nosy. Joe led us to a flight of stairs that led up to the rafters and I grinned, following him as he bounded up the stairs and came to a room filled with loads of old equipment. 

We were at the front of the building so I walked to the window and looked out to see that there were now hundreds of people making their way inside. 

“I hope one day I can fill places like this.” I said wistfully looking at all the fans. 

Joe came and stood beside me, looking out over the people walking into the venue. “Let’s give them something to look at shall we?”

With this he opened the widow, he shot me a grin, turned around and pulled his trousers and boxer shorts down before hanging his ass out of the window and letting out a loud whistle. 

I heard squeals from the fans below and looked out slyly to notice people pointing up and laughing. After a minute Joe pulled his ass back in and pulled his trousers up before leaning out of the window to give the fans a wave. The cheers and whistles got louder as people saw that it was him and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Suck it!” he shouted jokingly.

After a minute he stepped back into the room and pulled the window closed, turning to me with a self-satisfied smirk on his face as the fans cheered on outside.

“You are crazy.” I told him still laughing. 

I was still laughing as we got back to the dressing rooms to find that none of the guys had even moved from where they were before.

“What’s funny?” Sal asked with interest as we walked into the room chuckling to ourselves.

“Joe mooned the fans outside from one of the windows upstairs.” I told him giggling. 

Sal, Murr and Brian all rolled their eyes as Rick, Chris and Beth started to laugh.

“Is there anyone that hasn’t seen your ass at this point?” Murr asked wryly.

Joe walked over to one of the coaches, sitting down next to Beth with a shake of his head. “Probably not, no.” he grinned reaching over for a bag of chips.

We chilled out in the dressing room for a while but we were soon called by one of the staff who led me Beth, Chris and Rick through to the back of the stage, where we stood grinning, excited at the thought of another show. 

We got into our huddle and gave each other a quick squeeze before listening for the voice to ring out from the stage announcing us. As soon as we heard it we bounded onto the stage and this time it was me that hit the stage first, looking out over all the fans and noticing that it was way more crowded in the audience than it had been at the last show. 

I grabbed the mic excitedly and rushed through a greeting before we launched into our first song. This time the crowd was on board from the start and I felt my heart pounding as I saw how many people were singing or clapping along with the music. There were even a few people stood up dancing. I gave it my all and was surprised when looking around the audience I spotted Brian stood right back at the auditorium. He was wearing a baseball cap pulled low over his head and was stood with a member of the security team but it was definitely him.

I tried not to let it throw me but every time my eyes flicked over to him it seemed like his eyes were on me, watching me as I moved about the stage. The rest of the show flew by and we had just finished our last song when my eyes were drawn to the back of the stage, where I saw Brian hurriedly making his way back through the doors that would lead him backstage. 

As the song finished the crowd erupted into loud applause and I saw the others come to stand next to me, where we gave our bow before walking off of the stage. 

“That was even better than yesterday!” Rick said happily as we headed back towards the dressing rooms. 

“Well we are generating a lot of buzz.” Chris told us. “Our online fan base has grown massively already.” 

“Really?” I asked, having not checked the profiles myself. 

“Sure thing.” He nodded. “Check it out when you get a chance.” 

I grinned and followed them back to the dressing rooms where we found the Murr and Joe getting to their feet as Sal stood in front of the mirror checking his hair. I was leaning on the door, watching the others chat away when I sensed rather than saw Brian come up behind me. 

I turned to face him and found him smiling down at me. “Amazing show tonight Emma.” He said grinning.

“Thanks.” I said, my eyes darting away from his before I started to blush. It seemed like I couldn’t be near him anymore without blushing. “I thought that was you at the back of the stage.”

“I couldn’t resist.” He replied. “You light up when you are on stage.”

I felt my cheeks glowing and tried to think of something to say but come up short. Luckily I heard the others moving towards me.

“Show time.” Murr said as he walked past me, shooting me a wink.

“You can watch from the side of the stage if you want.” Joe told us as he followed Murr down the corridor. 

Sal dropped a kiss on my cheek as he walked past and I couldn’t help but smile, they had accepted us totally and it felt like we had been friends for years.

I looked up to find Brian watching me again. 

“Have a good show.” I told him, trying in vain to keep my eyes off of his lips. He was stood right in front of me so from this position all I would have to do is lean forward on to my tip-toes and I would be able to press my lips against his.

I looked back up to his eyes to see him watching me and before I knew it I leant into and pecked him on the cheek, reaching up a hand to steady myself by putting a hand on his chest. My hand encountered muscle and I felt my eyes widen fractionally as I imagined the body beneath the t-shirt. 

“Bri!” Sal called, making us take a step back from each other. “Come on man!” 

He took a step past me to head towards the others but turned around to shoot me a wink. “Enjoy the show.” 

I felt a smile tug at my lips as I watched him walk away but felt the smile drop off my lips as I turned to see Beth watching me closely. 

“What was that about?” she asked, one eyebrow raised inquisitively. 

I shook my head, unable to wipe the smile off my face. “Nothing.” 

Beth reached out and grabbed my hand and pulled me into the dressing room where I noticed that Rick and Chris must have followed the guys to watch from the side of the stage. 

“Sit.” Beth demanded pushing me gently onto one of the couches. “Now tell me what is going on.”

I sighed in defeat as I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get away without telling her something. Part of me thought that I should keep things to myself but the other part of me was grateful that I would have someone to talk about things with. 

“Well you know last night I passed out and Brian took me back to the hotel?” I started.

Beth nodded, taking a few steps back so that she could perch on one of the dressing tables.

“Well we ended up going for breakfast early because we knew that you guys wouldn’t be awake for a while and while we were eating Ross called telling me to get on Skype.”

“Uh-huh.” Beth said, rolling her eyes at the mention at Ross.

“It turns out someone posted some pictures on the net of me and Brian from last night, from just before I passed out and others from when I had been passed out and he had lifted me up…”

“To where?” Beth interrupted interestedly. 

“Twitter.” I told her, waving a hand dismissively before I continued. “So Ross found them and proceeded to go bat-shit mental and Brian heard it all and knocked to check I was ok. He looked so sympathetic Beth, I ended up crying.” 

“Oh sweetie.” Beth muttered getting up and coming to sit next to me. “Ross doesn’t deserve you.”

“Well understandably,” I continued, ignoring her comment. “Brian took pity on me, letting me get it all out of my system and then, well… he went to kiss me.” 

“I knew he liked you!” Beth exclaimed happily. “He watches you all of the time when he thinks no-one is looking.” 

“No he doesn’t!” I replied hurriedly. “He just felt sorry for me because I was all weepy.” 

“Emma I know you sometimes struggle with confidence but open your eyes!” Beth told me, her tone becoming serious. She pulled me up and positioned me in front of the mirror, where she pulled my hair from over my face and looked at our reflections. 

“You are beautiful, funny, kind and talented.” She said smiling fondly as she me examine my own reflection. “Why wouldn’t Brian want you?”

I laughed and stepped away from the mirror. “Ok, Ok, I get it.” I said needing to change the subject. “Can we go and watch the show now?”

Beth shrugged and reached down for her bag, deciding wisely not to push it. As she walked past me towards the door I instinctively reached out and threw my arms around her. 

“I love you.” I told her honestly. “I don’t know what I would do without you.” 

“I love you too sweetie.” She replied, the smile clear in her voice. 

With that she grabbed my hands and started to pull me down the corridor but I stopped her when I realised that she was walking the wrong way.

“It’s the other way!” I told her, trying to slow her down but she kept on walking. “They told us we could watch from the side of the stage.”

“And where is the fun in that?” she asked, shooting me one of her wicked grins. 

I laughed and decided to go along with it. Everyone’s eyes would be on the guys anyway so no-one would even notice us. 

It didn’t take us long to get into the auditorium so we crept into the room and made our way to stand at the back of the arena and were surprised to see that not one person turned to look at us.

The guys were on the stage doing their thing and already the crowd was in stitches. 

“I can’t believe that we hadn’t really heard of them before.” Beth said, leaning into my ear so that I could hear her over the crowd.

“I know!” I agreed. “I’m kind of glad though. At least this way we can get to know them for them.”

Beth grinned at me. “And just how well are you planning on getting to know him?”

I blushed and punched her lightly on the arm. “Will you stop?” 

“Oh come on, look at him…” Beth urged pointing up at the stage, where right now Brian was stood watching Murr talk to the crowd. “Tell me you are not attracted to him.”

I looked at her but couldn’t find the energy to deny what she was saying.

“I knew it!” she squealed gleefully. 

I laughed but turned my attention to the stage where we watched the rest of the show. As the guys started winding down we quickly decided to head backstage to meet the others as we were due to get straight onto the coaches as quickly as we could. 

We got back to the dressing rooms to see that our bags had already been taken back to the buses so all we had to do was wait for the others. 

We heard them a mile off, their laughter signalling that they were nearly back so we walked to the door, where we found them all walking down the corridor, chatting away excitedly. 

“The bags been taken yet?” Joe asked poking his head around the door.

I nodded. “Time to get on the coaches I guess.”

“You up for that PS4 session?” Sal asked Rick and Chris. 

“Sure am.” Rick answered. “I’m too buzzed to sleep.” 

Chris agreed before Joe and Beth stated that they wanted to catch up on some sleep. I watched as Brian turned to look at me, his mouth quirking up in a smile that I was swiftly beginning to find irresistible.

“Fancy catching a film then?” he asked. “It will be nice to watch one without these jackasses interrupting every couple of minutes.”

“Sounds good.” I nodded as I felt my heart start to race, which wasn’t helped by the fact that Beth decided to give me a sly thumbs up from behind him.

“Come on then guys.” Murr stated nudging us towards the exit. 

We had just turned the corner than led to the double doors when I noticed that there were now a handful of bouncers at the ready. 

I slowed as I saw the security guys get into position and one of them went to stand in front of the doors and asked the guys the plan.

“We need to be on the road so we will make it swift.” Sal decided, turning to check with the others. “Say 10 minutes?”

The others nodded and I shot Beth a questioning look as they made their way towards the doors.

Next thing I knew the bouncer had opened the door and we were assailed by the noise of what sounded like a hundred girls screaming.

Chris, Rick, Beth and I stood back as the guys walked out and the screams immediately doubled in volume. Security had erected a gangway that led to the coach but either side of the waist high make-shift barricade fans clamored to get a glimpse of the guys. I grinned, watching as they plastered smiles onto their faces and headed over to the nearest fans, taking phones out of outstretched hands to take selfies with a lucky handful.

The screams had died down a bit and now you could make out girls yelling out the guys names, begging to have pictures taken with them while they had the chance. We stood and watched for a few minutes but after a while one of the bouncers motioned for us to make our way over to the coaches so I grabbed hold of Rick’s hand and let him pull me towards the doors. 

We had just taken a step outside when I was surprised to hear someone call my name. I turned to see a lad of about 13 standing just behind the barriers, holding out a phone with a questioning look on his face. 

I smiled back at him, letting go of Rick’s hand and making my way over.

“Emma!” he greeted excitedly. “Can I get a photo?” 

I nodded, reaching out to take the phone before turning round so that I could put my arm around him awkwardly and snap a couple of selfies. 

“Thanks so much.” He said happily. “I’m a huge fan!”

I grinned down at him and couldn’t resist leaning down to give him a hug, before pulling back and suddenly noticing that Rick, Chris and Beth were doing the same, talking to fans and posing for pics. The guys were getting more shouts than me and Beth but that was to be expected with a crowd that were predominantly female.   
Moving towards the coach I stopped a couple of more times when I heard my name called and ended up taking a selfie with a young lad right next to Brian, who was currently posing for some pictures with a group of teenage girls. I had just said goodbye to the lad I had been taking a selfie with and made to walk past Brian when one of the girls he was stood with yelled my name.

“Emma! Can we have a picture of you and Brian together?” one of them asked.

Brian nodded and reached over to pull me close and I grinned into the camera as he put his arm around me and posed for the photo. 

“You make such a cute couple!” one of the girls yelled excitedly as the group of girls took a bunch of pictures. 

I looked up to Brian and our eyes met as the flash of a dozen cameras went off all around us. It was as if time stood still and in those few moments it was like there was no-one but the 2 of us. 

Yanking me out of my thoughts I felt a hand on my arm and looked down to see Beth urging me towards the coach. 

“Time to go guys.” She said with a grin, noticing the chemistry between us. 

I looked up and noticed that the others were all on the other coach and only me, Beth and Brian remained outside. I hurriedly turned to wave at the few fans I had taken pictures with before I quickly made my way up the steps of the coach where I threw myself down on one of the seats besides Beth and looked out of the window. 

Brian was walking towards the bus but turned round at the last minute and thanked everyone for coming out, before heading up the steps and joining me and Beth.

“That was crazy!” I exclaimed once the bus had pulled off and we had all watched out the window as the fans got smaller and smaller until finally we disappeared around a corner. 

“I can’t believe people were shouting my name.” Beth told us excitedly. “I have waited for that moment all my life!”

I laughed and we turned to Brian, who was watching us both with a bemused expression. “You get used to it.” 

We chatted for a while but we had just pulled onto the highway when Beth got up out of her seat and stretched her arms above her head. “Well, I’m knackered.” She announced. “I’m gonna get some kip.” 

She leant down and enveloped me in a brief hug before leaning down and dropping a quick kiss on Brian’s cheek. “Night guys.” 

I watched as she walked towards the bunks where she pulled the large t-shirt she slept in off of the bed and headed towards the small bathroom to get changed.  
As I turned back I found Brian watching me.

“Ready for that film?” he questioned.

I nodded, standing up and making my way towards the back of the coach where the tv was set up. “What you bought with you?” I called over my shoulder as he made his way to follow me.

As I reached the back of the bus I threw myself down on the large couch and kicked off my shoes before pulling my legs up underneath me, watching as Brian flicked the tv on and pulled a couple of DVDs out of the bag he carried. “The classics.” 

I saw that he had indeed brought a collection of classics and quickly pulled the original Nightmare on Elm Street out of his hands. He dumped the other DVDs back in the bag before placing it back on the floor and putting the film in the player. Before he sat down he reached over and flicked all of the lights off so that we were left in darkness apart from the soft glow coming from the television, turning to smile at me as he lowered himself down next to me on the huge sofa. 

“Good choice.” He told me as the film started to roll. “This one has always been one of my favourites.” 

I nodded and murmured my agreement, turning to look at his profile in the darkness. His beard had grown in the week since I had first met him and my fingers itched to reach out and see if it was as soft as it looked. For a change he wasn’t wearing a hat and I noticed that the flecks of grey at his temples were actually more of a silver colour in the light from the television screen. 

“What?” Brian said, turning to face me, one side of his mouth pulled up in a smirk. 

My cheeks flamed as I realised that I had been caught staring and I tried to think of something to say to cover my embarrassment. Coming up empty I smiled ruefully and shrugged. “Nothing.” 

His smirk turned into a grin but thankfully he turned back to the screen so I tried to keep my attention focused on the film. Trying to keep my eyes away from him was hard work and less than half way through the film I found myself struggling to stay awake. 

Brian noticed and fluffed up the pillows next to him. “Come on, you will ache if you fall asleep like that.” 

I smiled gratefully and stretched my body out next to him, close enough rest my head on his chest but not daring to do so. I looked back at the screen and it was mere minutes later when unbeknownst to me, Brian watched me as my eyes fluttered closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, your comments are welcome :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma and Brian admit how they feel...

The next 5 days were a dream, Brian and me ended up spending more and more time together. I had fallen asleep watching the film but I had woken up less than half an hour later needing the bathroom and I had found that I was no longer tired. We had ended up talking long into the next morning and I was relieved to see the sense of awkwardness between us was gone. We found that we actually had tons in common and found ourselves talking about anything and everything, from sports, movies, our lives and music. While things were never anything more than friendly between us I sensed that he was holding back and it became clear that I wasn’t the only one with the crush. The sly glances and innocent touches were becoming more and more obvious and every time our skin touched I ached to jump into his arms but for now I was just loving the fact that we were getting on so well and was letting things develop and deepen between us. It was effortless spending time together and I found the more days that passed the more attracted to him I became. Luckily no-one really commented on the fact that we had become pretty inseparable so I was just able to enjoy every second and relish the chance to spend so much time with him.

I had managed to put Ross out of my mind and surprisingly he hadn’t tried to contact me so I had managed to enjoy myself without having to worry about him. I was not going to reach out to him, his behavior had crossed the line and I knew deep down that things were over between us. It was just a case of finding the right time to tell him. Part of me was hoping that things would just drift to a natural end and he would get the message without me having to say anything. 

It just so happened that we had tonight off and the following day was my birthday so we had made plans to go out and celebrate and let our hair down. We had been on the road most of the day and I was itching to get to the hotel and get ready for a night off. The weather was heating up and I felt sticking from a long day on the road.

We had just pulled up in front of our hotel for the next 2 nights and I was desperate for a shower before we went out but Beth was calling me from the back of the bus. 

“I can’t find my phone!” she yelled down to me. “Emma, can you come help?” 

I rolled my eyes at Rick and Chris and told them we would meet them inside before walking back to help Beth as they hurried off of the bus.

We looked for her phone for about 10 minutes but couldn’t find it anywhere so Beth decided that she must have left it in her other bag. I groaned, having wasted 10 minutes in which I could be stood under a steady stream of cool water but decided to hold my tongue as I followed her out of the bus. The others had already checked in and were nowhere to be seen.

I headed over to reception and collected my keys quickly, desperate to get upstairs but waited while Beth checked in so that we could head upstairs together. 

“See you in a bit.” I told her opening my door when eventually we had gotten to our rooms.

Walking into the room I was just about to turn and close the door when I heard a noise and spun around to see everyone jump out at me, clutching banners and balloons. They yelled “Surprise” in unison and I felt my mouth curve into a wide smile.

“Guys!” I exclaimed grinning. “It’s not my birthday until tomorrow. What is all this?” 

“Well there has been a change of plan.” Rick told me. “You need to open this before tonight.” 

With that he handed me an envelope and I tore it open excitedly and quickly scanned the writing on the ticket that fell into my hands before my head whipped up in surprise. 

“Seriously?” I questioned, my eyes glancing down to re-read the tickets. 

They had gotten me tickets to see Muse, my favourite band. They were a British band and while I had known that they were touring over here I had not realised that we were going to be in the same city at the same time or else I would have gotten tickets myself.

“This is amazing!” I stated looking up to see them all watching me. 

“I’d love to take credit but it was all Quinn’s idea.” Beth told me gesturing towards him. “He sorted everything.”

My eyes flicked to him and I saw him smiling and before I knew what I was doing I walked the couple of steps across the room to where he was standing and threw myself into his arms. “Thanks so much!” I said excitedly. “Are you coming with me?”

“Well it was sold out so I only managed to get 2 tickets so we were going to let you decide who to take.” He told me with a look of surprise. “I assumed you would want to go with Beth.”

“Up for it?” I asked, still enfolded in his arms. 

He nodded down at me, his mouth curling into a grin and I heard Rick let out a fake grunt of annoyance. 

“Looks like we are on our own tonight.” He joked, turning to the others with a pout.

I entangled myself from Brian’s arms and turned to look at them. “As if you won’t have an incredible time without us.” I shot back.

Beth laughed and walked over to me, where she threw an arm around my shoulder. “The gig is in a couple of hours.” She told me. “We better leave you to get ready.” 

I squealed excitedly and looked over at Brian. “When do we need to leave?” 

He looked down at his watch. “In about 40 minutes.” 

I nodded and turned back to the others. “I guess I will see you all when we get back.” 

“I’m sure we will still be out.” Joe told me giving me a hug before heading towards the door. 

“Have fun!” Sal said shooting me a wink. 

I grinned and walked over to the bathroom, pulling out my bag of toiletries as they all filed out of the door, wondering what I was going to wear.

 

An hour and a half later the cab pulled up at a massive arena on the outskirts of the city and I jumped out of the car excitedly as Brian had insisted on paying the driver. 

“This is going to be amazing!” I stated looking at the arena as Brian climbed out of the car.

Brian stood looking at the people milling around us so I reached for his hand, pulling him impatiently towards the venue. I was itching to get inside so that we could get as near to the front as we could.

“You excited?” I asked, glancing up at him as we followed the throng of people heading to the gig. 

“I am.” He said nodding, his hair bobbing around his face. “I’ve heard they are great live.” 

“They are!” I nodded in agreement. “You are going to love it.” 

We made our way through the entrance, stopping briefly to hand over our tickets and have someone check my bag.

As soon as we got inside I headed over to the merchandise table where I perused the t-shirts and decided which one I was going to buy. It was sort of a tradition of mine that every gig I went to I bought a t-shirt to remember it.

“Like any of them?” Brian questioned, watching my eyes scan the many t-shirts on sale. 

I grinned at him and nodded, spotting one I liked and pointing up at it, reaching into my bag for my purse as I caught the attention of one of the sellers. 

“Don’t even think about it.” Brian said reaching down to pull my hand away from my bag. “Tonight is on me.”

I shook my head but looked up at him to see him smiling. “Really Emma.” He insisted. 

I shrugged, deciding to let him have his way and told the seller which one I wanted. I waited impatiently for him to hand it me before skipping away from the table and finding some space.

Handing Brian my bag I pulled the t-shirt over my head and knotted it around my waist, revealing a few inches of skin around the waistband of my jeans. 

Looking up I saw Brian’s eyes flick up from my stomach and couldn’t help but smirk as his eyes met mine. “Shall we get some beers?” 

Brian swallowed and nodded, reaching down to take my hand so that we didn’t get lost in the huge crowd of people now milling around us. Revelling in the sense of his large hand around mine I hurried deeper into the venue in search of a bar. We soon found a bar without a massive queue and ordered a couple of beers before turning to head into the arena. 

As we followed the line of people filing through a huge arch I noticed that the arena was open air and my mouth fell open as I saw that there were already thousands of people sat in the tiers and crowded on the floor. It was by far the biggest venue I had ever been in, the sheer size of it dwarfing any arena I had been in before.

“It’s huge!” I stated looking around in awe. It really was massive. “Can you imagine what it must be like to play somewhere like this?” 

I turned to Brain, expecting to see him looking around the arena but blushed seeing his eyes firmly on me. “You won’t have to imagine. You are going to be huge.” 

I smiled, looking back towards the stage wistfully. “I hope so.” 

“Come on.” He said suddenly. “Let’s find some space.” 

I grinned and let him take my hand again as we walked down the side of the arena floor, slowly making our way forward. I noticed that we were coming up to a barrier guarded by bouncers and pulled on his hand. 

“I think this is as far as we get.” I told him with a mock pout. 

“Well…” he said with a grin. “I actually have another surprise.” 

With this he pulled me towards the bouncers and said something to them. I didn’t hear what he said but watched as he pulled what appeared to be 2 passes of some kind out of his pocket and showed them to the security guards. My mouth fell open as the bouncer stood aside and motioned for us to go through. 

Brian looked at me and grinned, enjoying the look of surprise on my face. “I pulled some strings and was able to get us VIP passes.” He admitted handing one of the   
passes to me.

I looked down at it and felt my eyes grow wide as I saw the words ‘all access’ printed on it.

“Does this mean that we can go backstage?” I asked incredulously. 

Brian nodded and I let out a squeal and for the 2nd time that day launched myself into his arms. He caught me with ease and I felt his arms wind around me to support me. I saw people around us watching, a few here and there smiling at my obvious display of affection.

“You are my hero!” I told him when he had put me back down on the ground. 

I let out a laugh as I watched Brian’s cheeks colour but realised that we were wasting time and grabbed his hand, pulling him down towards the stage. As we got closer to the front of the arena the stage got larger and I scanned the area in front of us until I saw another bouncing guarding a passageway. 

I ignored my stomach as it started to flutter at the thought of meeting the band and hurriedly showed my pass to the security guy guarding what was clearly the backstage entrance.

We made our way through and soon found ourselves in a large area in which there was probably a dozen other people milling around. I looked around to see that there was a small bar in the corner so I pulled Brian over and ordered us another couple of beers. 

“How did you do this?” I asked Brian with interest, my eyes flicking around the room and taking in the people stood around drinking. 

“I called in some favours.” He said simply. “I know how much you love the band and wanted to do something special.” 

I looked up at him and was just about to say something when I noticed that the room had gone quiet. Turning my head I saw that the band had walked in and were stood around chatting less than 10 feet away from me.

Seeing my eyes light up, Brian gestured towards them before shoving me lightly in their direction. “Here’s your chance.” 

I took a gulp of my beer, ignored my pounding heart and took Brian’s hand, making my way slowly towards them. 

I was about 10 feet away from them when the lead singer, Matt Bellamy looked up at me and saw my t-shirt, his mouth curving into a smile. Before I had chance to chicken out I walked up to him and stuck out my hand. 

“I’m Emma.” I stuttered, trying but failing to think of something smart to say. “I’m a big fan.”

Matt grasped my hand and shook it lightly before looking over to Brian, when his eyes flashed in recognition. “You’re in that prank show.” 

Brian nodded and stuck out his hand which Matt shook dutifully. 

“I love your show man!” Matt said earnestly. “Thanks for coming out.” 

“Well its Emma’s birthday tomorrow so I brought her as a surprise.” Brian told him.

Matt looked down at me and smiled. “Well Happy Birthday for tomorrow Emma.” He said smiling. “You got a favourite song of ours?” 

I nodded. “Uprising.” I told him instantly. 

“Can we get a quick photo?” Brian asked, clearly noticing that I was too star struck to think of asking.

Matt grinned and placed an arm around my shoulder, calling for one of the crew walking past to take a picture of the 3 of us on my phone.

“Thanks so much!” I gushed. “I really am a huge fan!” 

Matt grinned and was about to say something when the others from the band called over to get his attention. 

“Duty calls.” He said turning to us with smile. “Enjoy the show guys.”

With that he walked off and I was left standing open mouthed looking after him.

“I can’t believe I just met Matt fucking Bellamy.” I said quietly as he walked away. “This is the best birthday present ever.” 

I turned to Brian and was again about to say something when we heard music start booming out of the speakers from the stage. The support act had started.

“We going back out?” he asked.

I nodded and we headed back to the arena, where I was amazed to find that our tickets allowed us to watch the gig from in front of the normal barriers. Along with a handful of other people we were close enough to the stage to touch it. 

“Brian I will never be able to thank you enough for this!” I shouted over the support band.

Grinning down at me he reached for his hand and I had to fight the urge to throw myself at him and pin my lips against his. Never had anyone done anything like this for me before.

The support act weren’t on long so we spent some time chatting and drinking but it wasn’t long before Muse appeared up on the stage mere feet in front of us. The crowd went wild and I joined in, cheering and clapping as they launched into their first song. I turned to Brian excitedly, grinning when I saw him nodding in time with the music, smiling widely, clearly having just as much fun as me.

Half way through the gig my feet were hurting and my voice was hoarse from cheering but I didn’t care, clapping wildly when they came to the end of another song. 

“This one goes out to a big fan, hope you are enjoying the show. Happy Birthday Emma!” Matt yelled into the microphone and looked down to where we were, shooting me a wink. 

I screamed loudly, throwing my arms up in the air and waving as he started with the opening riff of one of my favourites – ‘Uprising.’ 

The rest of the band joined in and the bass came booming out of the speakers as I turned to Brian to see him watching me. As our eyes met I felt a pang of desire and had to actually close my eyes for a minute to take a breath but felt my heart begin to pound when I opened my eyes to see Brian taking a step towards me. Knowing what was going to happen I leaned into him slightly and felt palms grow clammy as he reached up and took my face gently in between his hands.

“I don’t care that I shouldn’t.” he told me passionately. “I can’t resist anymore.”

I realised that I was holding my breath as I looked into his eyes and just had time to see the desire there before he leaned into me and kissed me. As my lips pressed against his my breath come rushing out of me in a moan and I wound my arms around him and delved them into his hair, pulling him even closer to me as lust thrummed through me. I felt his hands snake around my waist and come to rest on the skin between my jeans and my t-shirt, causing me to break out in goosebumps where his fingers trailed gently across the skin there. 

I noticed that I was panting but was too turned on to care and couldn’t resist grinding my body into his, feeling the need to be as close to him as possible.   
As fast as the kiss had happened it was all over and I was left bereft as Brian took a step back from me. I looked up at him to see him panting as hard as me and holding my gaze, his hair dishevelled from my hand’s frantic explorations.

Brian’s mouth curved into a grin and I returned his smile, both of us not feeling the need to say anything just then. Wordlessly, I moved to stand in front of him so that he could snake his arms around me instinctively while we listened to the end of the song, which was barely loud enough to cover the pounding of my heart.   
I felt Brian run his fingers lightly over my stomach and leaned back into him so that I could turn my head to drop a kiss on his cheek as the song finished and Matt looked down at us and gave us a thumbs us.

Laughing I turned to look at Brian and noticed that his forehead was covered in a sheen of sweat, his eyes bright as he grinned back at Matt from besides me. “I have wanted to do that since I first saw you.” Brian whispered in my ear as the band jumped into their next song. “You are so fucking sexy.”

I turned around and wound my arms around his waist. Meeting his gaze I felt my heart beat accelerate again as I saw the look in his eyes. I leaned into him and was rewarded when he pressed his lips against mine once again and flicked his tongue out to caress my own. Feeling moisture pool at my core I briefly pressed myself closer to him before pulling away and leaning up on my tip-toes just like I had imagined doing a couple of days ago so that I could whisper in his ear. 

“Unless you want me to jump you right here in front of everyone I think we should watch the rest of the concert.” 

Brian laughed and smiled down at me, swiping a strand of hair off of my sweaty forehead before manoeuvring me so that I was once again facing the stage. He didn’t let go of me for a second and I spent the rest of the gig pressed against him, revelling in the feeling of his arms around me and his body pressed against mine as my favourite band played mere feet in front of me. 

All too soon Muse announced that this would be their last song and I grinned, knowing as always that they would finish on another one of my favourites – Knights of Cydonia. As the music blasted out of the speakers I couldn’t resist turning to glance at Brian, only to find him watching me.

“Stop looking at me like that.” I grinned, only half serious. The look in his eyes left no question of what he was thinking about.

He shot me a wink before turning his attention back to the stage, pulling me closer as the band belted out the song in front of us. As they brought the song to a close the audience went wild and I cheered happily, clapping my hands as they came to the front of the stage to take a bow. Matt looked down and grinned at us, waving a hand in a salute before turning back to the crowd to say his goodbyes.

Once they had disappeared from the stage the lights came back on and the crowd immediately started to disperse. I turned to Brian with a smile. “So what d’ya think?” I asked smiling widely.

“I think you are the hottest thing I have ever seen.” He replied, reaching down to take my hand as we joined the crowd in heading towards the nearest exit. 

I laughed, feeling my cheeks colour as he gave me another one of his seductive smiles. “I meant about the show.” I giggled. “But thanks, you ain’t too bad yourself.” 

With that I lifted my hand and swatted his ass, his laugh getting louder. 

We soon found ourselves outside the stadium and had no trouble hailing a cab, falling into the back seat happily as we laughed and talked about the show. 

“So, back to the hotel?” Brian asked meeting my eyes. The look in his eyes told me what he wanted to happen, what we both wanted to happen.

“I don’t want to ruin the mood but I don’t want to start things like this.” I decided suddenly, my voice becoming serious. “I need to call Ross. Tell him it’s over and finish things properly.”

We had talked about my relationship in the days we had spent together and he knew as well as me that it was already over in my eyes after the way that Ross had treated at me. He also knew that it was important to me to end things properly before jumping into something else. 

Brian nodded, moving closer to me to put his arm around my shoulders. “If that’s what you want.” 

I smiled up at him, grateful that he understood where I was coming from. “I’ll call now.” I told him, earning a look of surprise. “Then we can go back to the hotel.” 

“Eager aren’t you?” he teased, his look of surprise turning into a grin.

I reached for his hand and shot him a grin while wondering how to make this as straightforward as possible with Ross. Even though to me it was obvious that things hadn’t been right for a while I knew that he was not going to take it well and I knew that this was going to anything but easy.

I pulled out my phone and noticed that I had several messages but didn’t bother to read them, too anxious to get through to Ross and deal with things. Scrolling to his name on my contacts list I held the phone up to my ear and waited impatiently for it to ring but was dismayed to hear a message notifying me that his phone was off.

Frowning I put the phone back in my bag and looked up at Brian. “His phone is off.” 

“So shall we meet the others?” Brian asked, looking up from his phone, disappointment clear in his voice. “They are at a bar by the hotel.”

I nodded but suddenly thought of something and looked up at him. “Erm… are we going to tell them?”

Brian smiled and reached up to run a hand through my hair. “Depends.” He told me. “Do you think you can keep your hands off of me for a couple of hours?”

“Do I have to?” I asked, my mouth forming a pout.

Brian laughed. “It’s up to you.” 

“In that case.” I decided, reaching up to meet his lips in a quick kiss. “I don’t think we have anything to hide.” 

Brian grinned as if this is what he was hoping I would say and pulled me onto his lap, briefly leaning over to tell the cab driver the address of the bar we wanted to get dropped off at.

We were soon pulling up to the bar and Brian payed the driver before climbing out and taking my hand, briefly leaning down and pressing his lips to mine in a kiss that immediately had my heart racing. 

As we walked into the bar I noticed that there was an old covers band playing, only just masking the sound of the laughter coming from a table at the back of the room where I saw our lot sat around drinking. 

“Let’s do this.” I told Brian leading the way towards them, still clutching onto his hand.

It was Sal who saw us first and I noticed that his gaze dropped instantly to our entwined hands before he turned to Beth, who was sat next to him, and nudged her lightly. Her eyes followed his and she broke into a wide smile. 

“You’re back!” she yelled loudly as we crossed the last couple of steps to the table, clearly having been drinking for a while.

The others all turned to look and just like Sal, their eyes immediately took in our linked hands. 

As we reached the table we were just in time to see Rick, Murr and Chris hand over what looked to be 10 dollar notes to Beth, Sal and Joe.

“Told you.” Sal said smugly as he pocketed the money from Murr. 

With that they all moved around the booth to make room for us so I sat down, pulling Brian onto the bench next to me.

“What’s with the money?” I asked.

“Just a friendly bet.” Rick answered with a smile.

“About what?” I asked, looking to Brian to see a bemused smile on his face.

“Whether you guys would hook up tonight.” Beth told me gleefully.

My cheeks coloured and they all laughed and I felt Brian put his arm around my shoulders and drop a kiss on my temple. 

“Was it that obvious?” I asked, deciding to find their betting amusing. 

“Uh, yeah!” Sal answered. “Just a tad.”

I laughed, reaching over to grab one of the untouched bottles of beer before grabbing another one for Brian.

“So how was the gig?” Chris asked with interest.

I broke into a grin as my thoughts returned to the concert. “Amazing!” I gushed. “We even got to meet Matt Bellamy!”

“No shit!” Beth exclaimed jealously.

I nodded and reached for my phone, quickly pressing a couple of buttons until I brought the picture up. I leaned forward and showed Beth and she smiled widely. 

“Wow! What was he like?”

“He was so nice!” I told her. “He even dedicated a song to me for my birthday.”

“He actually recognised me from the show.” Brian added. 

“Fucking hell!” Sal exclaimed. “That must mean that we have made the big time!”

I laughed as the others started joking amongst themselves but stopped as I idly scrolled through the messages I had forgotten to look at before. My face fell as I saw several messages from Ross. I felt my mouth fall open and realised that I had reached out to clutch Brian’s arm.

“What’s wrong?” he asked me worriedly, taking in the look on my face.

“Well, the reason Ross didn’t answer his phone is because he was on a plane.” I mumbled, lowering my voice so that the others couldn’t hear.

“You mean he is on his way here?” Brian asked.

I looked at the time and realised that I hadn’t checked my phone all day and that the message was from this morning. “His flight would have landed half an hour ago.”

I stood up and took a deep breath, hurriedly telling the others that I was heading back to the hotel and that I would see them in the morning. Brian had already gotten to his feet so I pulled him a couple of steps away from the table and shook my head.

I knew that even though Ross had told me that he wouldn’t that he would not hesitate to track my phone if I wasn’t at the hotel and the last thing that I wanted was him showing up here and a huge scene in front of the guys.

“This isn’t your problem.” I told him before he had chance to say anything. “I’ll deal with it and call you when I am done.”

“No… I’ll come with you.” He started but I cut him off.

“No.” I said looking up at him adamantly, my chin tilting in defiance. “This is something that I have to do on my own.”

With that I leaned in and pressed my lips against his in a chaste kiss and pulled away before he could deepen it. I tried to ignore the hurt look on his face knowing that Brian’s presence would only make things 10 times worse.

I turned to walk out of the bar and was relieved when I got outside and realised once I got my bearings that it was only a couple of minutes’ walk back to the hotel.  
Running through what I was going to say and feeling a pang of guilt lance through me over the fact that Ross had flown all this way, I tried to remember how badly things had been between us over the last 6 months and steeled myself to do this as quickly as possible and just get it over with. 

I walked into the hotel, passing the porter stood outside the doors and smiling up at him. I was just about to reach for my phone to call Ross when I sensed someone watching me and knew that it was him.

Looking up I saw him walk towards me, his stride purposeful. He looked anything but happy and I felt my stomach tighten as I realised that this was going to be worse than I had hoped. There was no way that he was going to take this well.

“Emma.” He greeted, making to pull me into his arms. 

I took a step back and motioned towards the bar. “Shall we?”

“What’s wrong?” Ross asked seeing my mouth set in a grim line.

I shook my head, saying nothing and refusing to meet his eyes. I walked past him into the bar, where I went and sat down at a quiet table in the corner of the room, noticing with a pang of relief that there were not that many people in the bar. 

Ross followed my lead and sat next to me and once again went to put his arm around me. Moving away from him I put my hand up to stop him touching me and looked up into his eyes. 

“It’s over Ross.” I blurted.

His mouth fell open as my words registered but I went on before he could say anything.

“You know as well as me that things have changed between us.” I told him. “The band is taking off and I don’t think…”

“Don’t pretend that this is about the fucking band!” Ross spat. “This is about that fucking joker that you were pictured with.”

“Did you not notice that you were stifling me?” I replied angrily, wanting to keep Brian out of it. “The last 6 months have felt like a prison sentence. I should have ended it long ago.”

Ross’s hand shot out and before I could stop him he had his fingers wound tightly around my upper arm. It was at that moment that a busboy appeared at our table and started to ask us what we wanted but before he could say anything Ross whipped his head around to face him.

“Fuck off.” 

The busboy’s eyes widened and his gaze flicked down to see Ross’s hand clutching my arm, the skin around his hand turning white from his grip. 

“Sir. I think that…”

“I said fuck off!” Ross repeated loudly, causing the busboy to take a step back and hurriedly head back to the bar.

“There was no need for that.” I told him quietly, noticing several people turn to look at us, trying to drag my arm away from his.

“We are going up to your room and we are going to talk about this some more.” Ross said quietly, a muscle twitching beneath the skin of his temple. 

With that he stood up, pulling me out of the booth with him, but was stopped when someone that I could only assume was the bar manager stepped in front of him. 

“Sir, I am going to have to ask you to leave.” The manager said firmly. 

Ross let go of me and took a step towards the guy and I knew that things were going to escalate so I hurriedly stepped towards them to pull Ross back. I was too late and could only watch hopelessly as Ross’s hands whipped out of nowhere and took hold of the bar manager’s jacket, pulling him close so that his face was mere inches away from the managers face. 

Not wanting things to get any worse I went to step between them and put a hand on Ross’s chest but was shocked when I felt a sting in my cheek. I realised that Ross had swiped his hand back towards me and caught me in the face and I reeled back, reaching up to put my hand to my cheek where he had hit me. I was hurriedly scanning the room to see if I could find anyone to help before things got out of hand when I found myself pulled back a few steps and looked up and was relieved to see Beth clutching my arm. 

I had only just noticed Beth when I saw movement out of the corner of my eyes and spun around to see that Brian had appeared along with her and had instantly put himself between the manager and Ross, reaching down to take Ross’s upper arm and pull him into some space between the tables. 

“Where the fuck do you get off?” Ross yelled on seeing who had taken hold of him. He was struggling but was no match for Brian, who was easily half a foot taller than him. “Me and Emma were happy before you came along.”

“This is not the time or the place.” Brian said calmly, his eyes swiftly shifting to meet mine for a beat before he looked back at Ross. “Now I suggest you leave before Emma decides to have you arrested for assault.” 

Ross struggled and made to pull away from him but Brian effortlessly turned Ross towards the exit, where we saw a couple of burly security guards walking towards us.

Knowing that they were here to escort Ross off of the property Brian let go of him, causing him to stumble. Ross quickly found his footing before standing up straight and turning back towards me, just in time for the security guards to take hold of an arm each and lead him towards the hotel entrance. 

“You don’t know what you are letting yourself in for!” he shouted over his shoulder. “This isn’t over!”

He continued ranting until he was escorted out of the building and it wasn’t until the room went quiet that I noticed that everyone in the bar was now staring at me in shock. 

“Thank you so much.” The bar manager said to Brian gratefully. “We will post security at the door to ensure that he doesn’t get back on the premises.”

With that the bar manager walked away and Brian turned to look at me, still stood with Beth’s arm around my shoulders. 

“Let’s get out of here.” He said hurriedly, taking my hand and leading the 2 of us into the lobby where we made our way into the lift. 

Once we had climbed inside and the doors had shut Brian approached me and gently put a hand up to my face, where he caressed the part of my cheek that had taken the blow.

“Does it hurt?” he asked quietly.

I nodded up at him, unable to speak as I felt my eyes fill with tears and embarrassment flood over me. 

“Oh Emma.” He said, pulling me into his arms. 

I rest my head against his chest, breathing in the familiar scent of him and letting it calm me and only moved out of his embrace when I heard the ping signalling that the doors were open.

As we walked down the corridor I looked over at Beth and saw her watching me quietly but managed to smile when I caught her eye. 

“I should have dealt with things before we left.” I said sadly. 

Beth shook her head and reached over to pull me into a hug as we stopped outside my room, Brian stepping away to let her wrap her arms around me. 

“Emma this isn’t your fault.” She told me. “It is done with now. It’s time to move on.”

I squeezed her tightly before stepping back. “Thanks for knowing that I would need you.” 

She laughed and reached up to run a hand down the side of my face that hadn’t taken a hit. “Always.” She grinned. “I’ll see you in the morning.” 

I smiled back at her and kissed her on the cheek before watching her walk down the corridor and disappear from view.

Turning back to Brian I saw him watching me solemnly and turned to open my door, walking inside and letting him walk past me before closing it behind us. 

“I really wish you hadn’t had to get involved.” I said.

I turned around, expecting him to be there in front of me but saw that he had walked over to the mini fridge, where he was taking out some ice cubes and wrapping them in a napkin. Once that was done he came to stand in front of me and held the ice lightly up to my cheek. Wincing as the cold compress touched my face I saw him grimace so I forced a smile.

“It really isn’t that bad.” I told him walking to sit on the bed.

“I wanted to rip his fucking throat out.” He said taking a deep breath, coming to sit beside me.

“Let it be known life with me is exciting.” I cracked trying to lighten the mood. 

Brian laughed and turned to face me before pulling me so that we were facing each other. Tenderly, he reached up and took the ice from my hand before putting it down on the bed next to us.

As we sat and looked at each other I sensed his unease and knew that he was not going to make a move so got up off the bed before moving to straddle him, wrapping my legs around his waist and reaching up to swipe his hair behind his ears so that I could see his face.

I met his gaze and held it until I saw the worry start to disappear from his eyes before I leant down and met his lips in a gentle kiss, pulling him close to me so that our whole bodies were pressed against each other. 

Within seconds the kiss grew heated and I started to let out little moans as his lips moved instinctively against mine. I reached up to tangle my hands into his hair and sighed in pleasure as I felt the soft strands between my fingers. 

Brian reached up and put his hands either side of my face and even though he was gentle I couldn’t help but let out a wince of pain and was dismayed to feel Brian instantly pull away from me. 

“Yeah this isn’t happening.” He said ruefully. “This is hurting you.”

“You’re not!” I lied. 

“Don’t lie to me.” He replied, meeting my gaze head on.

I felt heat colour my cheeks as he watched me and shook my head with a laugh. “But…”

“But nothing.” He told me adamantly, his tone softening. “We are going to do this properly.”

I looked at him quizzically. “We are?”

“Yes. We are.” He told me, his mouth quirking up in a grin. “I’m going to take you on a proper date and we are going to do this right.”

“What if that’s not what I want?” I asked trying to look serious. 

“What do you want?” 

I looked at him, my gaze flicking down to his lips, still swollen from our kiss. “What do you think?” 

“Impatient aren’t we?” he teased, reaching to run a finger across my lips. 

I laughed and leaned forward so that I could rest my head on his shoulder. “This is so not how I wanted this night to pan out.”

Brian pulled my head off of his shoulder so I could meet his eyes. 

“I’m just happy that I don’t have to pretend anymore.” He told me honestly. “It’s been so hard acting like I was happy just to be your friend.” 

Letting my eyes wander over his head I looked to the clock above the television across the room and saw that it was now way past midnight. 

“You are the best birthday present that I could wish for.” I told him earnestly. 

His lips curved into a smile and he leant into me once again, our lips meeting in a kiss that was all too brief.

“I think I’m going to head back to my room,” Brian announced suddenly. “Let you get some sleep.”

With that he gently lifted me off of him onto the mattress beside him and stood up, turning to look down at me with a smile. 

“Don’t go.” I said, hurriedly standing up and reaching out to take hold of his arm. “Can’t you sleep here tonight?”

“Emma I…”

“It’s my birthday.” I said, my lips forming a pout. “You can’t leave me here on my own.” 

Brian shook his head resignedly and pulled me close and I heard his sigh. “All right, but we will just sleep ok?”

I nodded into his chest before looking up at him, unable to wipe the smile off of my face. “I’ll get changed in the bathroom.”

I quickly pulled out the clothes I slept in from my bag, which happened to be an old over worn band t-shirt and some boy shorts, heading into the bathroom and shutting the door behind me before Brian had chance to change his mind.

I walked over to the sink to examine my reflection in the mirror and had to stifle a gasp. No wonder Brian didn’t want to touch me, there was a bright red mark right underneath my eye that I was sure was going to be bruised tomorrow.

Trying to forget about what had happened I quickly brushed my teeth and washed my face before pulling my hair up into a high ponytail. I hurriedly got changed and took one last look in the mirror before I opened the door to see Brian propped up on the bed, his gaze focused on the television as he flicked through the channels and tried to find something of interest. 

As he heard the bathroom door open Brian spun to look at me and I saw his gaze move to take in my bare legs and skimpy shorts. His tongue flicked out to swipe his bottom lip and I broke into a smile. I saw that he had taken off the hoodie he had been wearing, along with his jeans and was now just wearing a t-shirt and boxers. My eyes scanned his body hungrily, taking in the broad set of his shoulders and his powerful looking legs, covered in a light smattering of dark hair. 

I crossed the room quickly and climbed onto the bed, moving to sit in front of him and stretching my legs out in front of me in what I hoped was a seductive pose.

“So…” I said, looking up at him from underneath my lashes.

Brian let out a laugh and pulled me easily into his arms, turning down the duvet besides him before putting me back on the bed, where he pulled the duvet up over my legs and got in next to me. 

“You tired?” he asked.

“Not really.” I told him with a grin. “You?”

“A little bit.” He replied, laughing softy. 

Moving closer to him I pulled his arm around me and settled into the crook of his arm. He turned and flicked the lights off before shuffling down the bed so that he was lying flat on his back with me looking up at him.

With the room in darkness apart from the soft glow coming from the television I smiled up at him before snuggling my body even closer to him, wrapping my bare legs around his and throwing an arm across his body. 

“This is nice.” I sighed, once I was comfortable.

Brian nodded and leaned down to drop a kiss on the top of my head. “Sleep now sweetie.”

The heat coming from his body and the soft rhythm of his breathing soon lulled me into a state of relaxation and I decided to give into it and close my eyes. Brian had just started to snore softly when I fell asleep...


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up and saw that it must be morning, there was light coming through a crack in the curtains. The clock across the room told me that it was approaching 10am and I had just realised that I was alone in the bed when I heard hushed talking come from the other side of the room. I heard the door closed quietly and I looked up to see Brian walking back towards the bed with a couple of large mugs of coffee. 

He put the mugs down on the bedside table before he climbed back onto the bed and sat watching me as I pulled myself up and propped myself against the back of the bed. 

“Happy Birthday.” He said leaning over and kissing me, his hand reaching out to caress the tender spot on my cheek. “You sleep ok?” 

I nodded and rubbed some sleep out of my eyes before looking back up at him. I noticed that his hair was all mussed from sleep and glanced down at his body before meeting his eyes with a smile.

“You look so cute in the morning.” I told him, my mouth curling into a smirk.

“Cute?” he asked narrowing his eyes.

I nodded and couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face. “Cute.” I repeated.

He moved closer to me and took one side of my face in his hands before leaning down and pressing his lips lightly to mine. “Cute is not really what I’m going for Emma.” 

Brian held my gaze, his eyes dark as his hands slid leisurely down my body, my spine arching when he reached around behind me to rest his hands on my ass.

I moaned in appreciation, my lips reaching up to meet his.

As soon as our lips met I reached up to put my arms around him and luxuriated in the feeling of his mouth against mine, his teeth nibbling gently at my bottom lip. I pulled him closer and ground my pelvis against his and was just about to reach down to where I could now feel his cock pressing against me when we heard the door knock. 

Pulling back I saw his eyebrows crease into a frown and shook my head. “Shall we ignore it?” I questioned breathlessly. 

He shook his head, his mouth curving into a rueful smile. “We shouldn’t really.” 

I laughed and pulled away from him, climbing hurriedly off of the bed and grabbing the bathrobe off of the hook on the back of the door in the bathroom. I was heading to the door when it knocked again and I shot a glance over my shoulder to see Brian pulling one of the pillows over his mid-section to hide his erection.

Laughing, I slipped the robe over my shoulders and opened the door to see Beth, Chris, Rick, Sal, Joe and Murr all stood in the corridor, their hands full of gifts. 

“Happy Birthday!” Beth exclaimed, throwing her arms around me. 

I smiled, stepping back and letting them all file past me before closing the door. As I turned back around I saw them all looking at Brian, who was sat on the bed. 

“Morning.” He greeted shamelessly. 

They all turned to look at me, smiles wide on their faces. Murr was the first one of them to step towards me and pull me into a hug.

“Happy Birthday sweetie.” He told me, before pulling back and lifting a hand gently to my face. “Heard you had an exciting night.”

Remembering what had happened my hand flew to my face, where I prodded my cheek inquisitively before spinning to look at Brian. 

“How bad is it?” I asked him.

Brian had stepped into his jeans and was just pulling the duvet into place on the bed before he walked over to me. “It’s not as bad as I thought it would be actually.” 

Not wanting to dwell on what happened I turned to the others excitedly, who were making themselves comfortable around the room. “Can I open my gifts now?” 

Chris laughed and was the first to hand me a small package as we made our way to the large couches to sit down. He had stuck to tradition and had gotten me an old Guns’n’Roses t-shirt and a limited edition album that had only been released overseas. I smiled, leaning over to give him a hug and thanked him before turning to Beth, who was holding out her present impatiently. 

Unwrapping the carefully packaged gift I grinned, seeing that it was a jewellery box. Beth was the only person who would buy me jewellery, being the only one that really knew my tastes. 

I opened the box and stifled a gasp as I saw the beautiful charm bracelet that she had gotten me. It was on a silver chain and the charms were all totally unique. There was a guitar charm, a charm with our initials and several more and I realised that every charm had some significance and had something to do with our lives and the time that we had been friends. I felt my eyes fill with tears and jumped up and threw my arms around her. 

“Beth it’s amazing!” I told her honestly. “I love you so much.” 

She laughed and hugged me back, her arms tightening around me. “I had it made.” She told me. “So it’s one of a kind. Just like you.” 

I beamed at her as I fastened the bracelet around my wrist and showed it off to the others. 

The others went on to hand me more and more gifts and there was soon a pile of DVDs, t-shirts, albums and gift vouchers on the table in front of me. I saw that there was one left and I picked it up before picking it up. 

“Who is this from?” I asked inquisitively. 

“It’s from me.” Brian said, coming to sit beside me at the table and putting his arm around my shoulders.

I ripped the paper off excitedly and saw that it was 2 large photo frames. As I looked at the first picture my face curved into a grin as I saw that it was the picture of me, Brian and Matt Bellamy last night. 

I smiled, before picking up the next photo and taking a look at it. It was a photo taken of me when I was on stage. The others were in the background but the focus of the picture was on me, and had captured me smiling out into the crowd as I strutted around the stage. My bright red hair was flying wildly around me, as was the long gypsy style skirt I was wearing. Even if I did say so, I looked incredible.

“Who took this?” I asked incredulously. 

“One of the show photographers.” Brian told me as I stared at it. “I wanted you to see what I see when I look at you.” 

I heard Beth let out a sigh from next to us as my head whipped up to look at him. Not caring about the others I threw myself into his lap and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him close and kissing him with abandon. 

“I love it Brian.” I told him when I had pulled out of his arms. “Thank you so much.”

I looked at the others and saw that the guys were all looking elsewhere but Beth was watching us. As I met her eyes she grinned at me. 

“What say we head downstairs and meet for breakfast in half an hour.” Beth suggested. “Give these 2 time to get dressed.” 

The others agreed and hugged me briefly before filing out of the room and telling us that they would see us in a while. Beth was last and leaned into my ear before walking past me.

“I’m glad you are happy sweetheart.” She whispered before walking back into the corridor and shutting the door behind her.

I turned back to Brian and saw him watching me intently. Heading across to him I felt desire thrum through me as I walked straight into his arms. 

“How did I get so lucky?” I sighed as he pulled me close. 

He placed his arms on my shoulders and pulled me back so that he could look at me. “You think you are the lucky one?” he asked shaking his head. “I think it’s the other way around.”

He kissed me passionately but before we could get carried away he gently pulled away from me and shook his head. “We need to get showered.” He stated. “And as I don’t trust myself to be in a room with you naked I am going to go back to my room to change. I’ll be straight back.” 

I grinned and nodded. “I’ll leave the door unlocked.” 

With that he dropped a kiss on my forehead before he headed through the door and shut it behind him, turning around just before he disappeared to shoot me a grin. 

As soon as he was gone I jumped into the shower and hurried to get ready.

 

It was a perfect day. We hired cars and drove around the city sightseeing. Me, Brian, Beth and Sal went in one car and the others went in another. We ate and drank and laughed and enjoyed letting our hair down and basically spent the day doing nothing much. It was the best birthday I had ever had. In just a short time we had become close and I knew that even after the tour we would stay friends. The guys were down to earth and fun and I thanked my lucky stars once again that this had happened to us. 

We had just finished dinner when it was decided that it was time to get ready to head over to the venue. Brian left me alone to get changed and I decided to make an effort. I was hoping that tonight would be the night that ‘it’ happened so pulled on my only pair of matching lingerie and applied some of my favourite scented body lotion all over myself. 

Brian and I had spent all day by each other’s sides and I had lost count of the number of sly glances and flirty touches we had shared. While we made an effort not to be all over each other for the sake of the others we had struggled to keep our hands off of each other and I was hoping that tonight would see the passion bubble over into something spectacular. 

My mind conjured up images of me entwined in his arms, looking up at him as he prepared to slam himself inside of me. Feeling my cheeks heat and my heartbeat accelerate I realised that I needed to stop day dreaming and get ready.

Rummaging through my bag I decided that I would go for a casual look and pulled out a pair of denim cut offs that showed off my long legs. I matched it with a casual white shirt, made from the softest cotton, which I tucked into the shorts before doing the buttons up to leave a hint of cleavage showing. I washed my hair but left it down and scrunched it up so that it fell curly around my shoulders. 

Standing back to survey the result I grinned at myself and stepped into a pair of high heeled red pumps before slicking my lips with some gloss of the same colour. 

Almost as if he had sensed that I was ready I heard a knock at my door and turned to see Brian walk through my door. 

As he caught sight of me his eyes grew wide and I saw his eyes flash in appreciation while his mouth curved into a grin. I quickly glanced at him and saw that he was wearing a black shirt, unbuttoned to his mid-section to reveal a graphic print t-shirt underneath. I saw that he was not wearing a hat and my hands instantly itched to run through the strands of his hair that I now knew were surprisingly soft.

It must have only been a few seconds that we stood there checking each other out but it felt like longer as I crossed the distance between us and threw my arms around his neck.

“You look good enough to eat.” He told me, leaning down to drop a couple of kisses down my throat. 

I felt my pulse quicken and pulled out of his arms, gesturing towards the door. “Shall we?” 

He nodded and reached down to take my hand and we walked out of the room, locking the door before heading down the corridor towards the elevator. 

We waited for the doors to open and I felt a pang of disappointment when I saw that there were already a couple of people in there. They stepped apart to let us through so we moved to the back of the lift where Brian pulled me underneath his arm.

I shot him a cheeky glance before moving my hand around to his back, where I slid my hand underneath the waistband of his jeans and moved my hand so that I could squeeze his ass. I heard him chuckle lightly as I pulled my hand back out of his jeans but the chuckle soon turned into a growl as I trailed my fingernails over the skin just above his waistband. 

Turning to face me he took hold of my hand and lifted it to his lips before meeting my gaze. “Behave.” He mouthed, with a smile. 

I laughed but turned back towards the front of the elevator where we just in time to see the doors open. Waiting for the people in front of us to walk out we strolled into the lobby and saw that the others were already waiting around some tables in one of the corners. 

“Looking good.” Rick told me with a grin as we reached the table.

“Thanks.” I grinned back, motioning to the entrance of the hotel, where I saw that there was already a minivan waiting to take us to the venue. “We ready?”

They all jumped up and I followed behind them, tugging on Brian’s hand to keep up and shooting him a grin.

“Someone’s in a good mood.” he commented, returning my smile. 

“Well why shouldn’t I be?” I replied, climbing into the van behind the others and pulling Brian to sit beside me. “I’m heading to do what I love doing in front of a thousand people, it’s my birthday… and I’ve got the feeling that the celebrations are going to last long into the night.” 

The last part I said quietly, pulling Brian’s hand to rest on my bare thigh. His mouth fell open before he had chance to gain his composure and I giggled girlishly as the grip on my leg tightened.

“You are incorrigible.” He told me smiling.

We made it to the venue in no time with the hotels always being picked for ease to get to the shows, so within 10 minutes we found ourselves climbing out of the mini-van and heading inside, falling into our normal routine of completing the sound check before heading to the bar for a few drinks to kill time before the show.

This venue happened to have a VIP box so when we were called up to stage the guys stood up and decided to watch from up there. Pulling me close Brian dropped a quick kiss on my cheek before turning to join the guys in finding their seats. 

“You look smokin’ by the way.” He called as he walked away.

I grinned and ran to catch up with Beth, Chris and Rick and found them in our usual huddle by the stage. “Can we mix it up tonight?” I asked them as I joined the circle. “I think we should add in Darlin’ Nikki.”

They nodded indulgently and grinned just as we heard the announcer call us to the stage.

I bounded out onto the stage and instantly looked up the balconies, where I spotted the guys in no time, sat in a box that was mostly out of sight of the others. I shot Brian a grin before turning my attention to the audience, who were cheering. While some of them were clearly just clapping to be polite I noticed that more people than ever seemed to know who we were and seemed to be cheering in obvious excitement. 

“Hey guys!” I greeted, pulling the microphone off of the stand. “How y’all doing tonight?” 

The cheering got louder and I turned and grinned back at the others before turning back to the audience again. “Enjoy the show!” 

Having performed a fair few times by this point our nerves had all but disappeared and we had become tighter than ever. As I rushed around the stage, moving my body to the music and belting my heart out I felt Brian’s eyes on me and couldn’t resist looking up to meet his eyes whenever I got the chance. 

“This is new to the set.” I said breathlessly as we come to the end of a song. “Hope y’all like Prince.”

Beth started up with the opening riff and I grinned up a Brian, knowing that he loved this song as much as me. As the others joined in and the music belted out of the speakers I held the mic up and started to sing, moving around the stage and grinding my body to the beat. I walked over to Beth, dancing around her as she played the sultry melody along with the guys. 

Knowing that Brian was watching I let my hand trail over my body as I slid across the stage and risked a glance up to see him watching wide-eyed, his mouth curved into a smile. The song passed in a flash and came to an end and the crowd went wild, cheering and clapping, some of them even getting up on their feet. 

The rest of the set went by as fast as always and I soon found myself linking hands with Beth and Rick as we bowed and exited the stage.

“That was fucking ace!” Chris shouted pulling into a hug, picking me up off of my feet and spinning me around. 

“Maybe we should add some more songs like that.”

We chatted away while we walked back to the backstage bar and flitted around some ideas. Usually we tended to keep our set pretty folksy, sticking to classics by Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty and The Police, amongst others but the reaction to the Prince song made us wonder if we could start adding some edgier songs in. We had tons of songs nailed down at this point and would love to start throwing in some songs by the likes of The Pretty Reckless, Def Leppard, Muse and Michael Jackson.   
We were still chatting away when we walked back into the bar and I found myself pounced on by Brain. He pulled me a couple of feet away from everyone and leaned into my ear.

“You were so sexy tonight.” He growled into my ear. “I nearly came watching you sing Darlin Nikki.”

I felt my core clench and grinned, reaching up to pull him into a kiss. “You think I was sexy on stage.” I murmured. “Wait until tonight.” 

Brian shook his head, shooting me a grin before turning to the guys. “Show’s cancelled tonight guys.” He joked. “I have somewhere to be.”

I laughed and pulled him back towards the others, gratefully accepting the beer that Chris was holding out to me.

 

Considering how desperate I was to get back to the hotel with Brian I thought the rest of the night would drag but as always it ended up being a right laugh. The guys even surprised me by getting the crowd to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, calling for me to stand up in the balcony while nearly 3 thousand people sang up to me. My eyes filled with tears as I watched the fans sing up at me before clapping wildly. Beth, Rick and Chris sang along with them and I leaned over the railing of the balcony to wave and thank everyone before they all turned their attention back to the stage.

By the time the guys got off the stage I was so turned on from watching Brian up on the stage that I thought I would burst and wasted no time in rushing back to the bar and throwing myself at Brian and pulling him in for a kiss.

“I could watch you on stage forever.” I told him. “You look so hot up there!”

He looked down at me and I saw that his eyes were blazing. “Come on.” He said urgently. “We are going back to the hotel.”

I looked over at the others who were all stood around the bar drinking and chatting before looking back up at him. “They are going to want to go out.” 

Brian smiled recklessly and shook his head. “I don’t care.” 

The look in his eyes caused a thrill to course through me and I let him lead me over to them all, where he told them we were going and I shot them all an apologetic grin.

“But it’s your birthday!” Chris said. “I thought we were going to celebrate.” 

“Tomorrow.” I called over my shoulder as Brian dragged me towards the back doors, wasting no time in telling the bouncers what was going on.

We reached the doors and you could already hear the fans outside, clamouring for a glimpse of the guys. I looked up at Brian in panic but he merely shrugged. 

“The bouncers are going to clear a path, just put your head down and go straight to the van.”

Before he had even finished his sentence the bouncers had opened the door and the cheering doubled in volume as the fans saw Brian stood there. He pulled me   
close and threw an arm around my shoulders, putting a hand out to shield my eyes as a hundred cameras flashed and tried to capture the moment. 

I felt a bouncer on the other side of me, rushing me towards the car and within seconds found myself in the van and heard the car door slam shut. The driver put his foot down and we suddenly found ourselves heading away from the venue, the cheers getting quieter and quieter as we made it to the main road. 

Looking out the back window I saw the fans staring after us but turned back to Brian when we turned around a corner and they disappeared from view. 

“That must get tiring.” I said letting out the breath I had been holding. 

“It is when you are impatient to get somewhere, yeah.”

I grinned and moved closer to him on the seat, reaching over and taking his hand in mine.

The drive to the hotel seemed longer than it ever had before but soon enough we found ourselves standing outside my room. I fumbled for the key and opened the door before stepping inside, pulling Brian along with me. I looked around the room that we had left a few hours before and was stunned to see that in the couple of hours we had been at the venue that it had been transformed.

There were dozens of candles of all different sizes placed on every surface in the room, filling the room with a soft glow. My eyes moved across the room and I saw that there was a bucket by the side of the bed containing a bottle of champagne, and a couple of glasses. Then my eyes moved over to the bed and I saw that it had been covered in rose petals, which glowed softly in the light from the candles. 

My mouth fell open as I took in the scene before me and I spun my head to look at Brian stood beside me. 

“I wanted to make this special.” He told me, his eyes smouldering.

I felt my eyes fill with tears as I turned to take in the room again and I felt Brian’s hands snake around me and pull me close, his arousal already evident against my hip. 

Turning around I jumped up into his arms, where he caught me with ease, and I mashed my lips against his. He walked us to the bed where he placed me softly down on the mattress before turning and walking over to the stereo. After pushing a couple of buttons the room was filled with the soft sounds of a man crooning about desire but before I had chance to recognise the song Brian was walking back towards me and my attention was fixed back on him.

He stalked towards me and every part of my body clenched in anticipation of what was to come. The sly glances we had been sharing all day told me that when we finally came together it was going to be explosive. 

I watched with baited breath as he reached for the champagne and opened it with ease, his mouth closing over the opening so as not to waste any as my body ached to have his mouth on me. 

He unhurriedly poured two glasses before turning back to me, sitting impatiently on the bed, my lips curved up in a smile, and handed me one.

I took a sip of the fizzy liquid and felt it run down my throat, watching him do the same over the rim of my glass. I quickly placed the glass on the bedside table before turning back to Brian. 

“I can’t believe you did this for me.” I mumbled as he turned to face me, my eyes wide.

He moved closer to me and took my face gently between his hands, his thumb skimming down to run over my lips. “You’re worth it.” 

I felt my mouth curl briefly into a smile and reached up to entangle my hands in his hair as I leaned in to press my lips against his. As soon as our lips met Brian moved his hands and they began to glide gently over the skin of neck before coming to rest on the buttons of my shirt. 

His pace was slow enough to make me burst he eventually started to undo the buttons one by one until he was able to open my shirt wide and feast his eyes on the smooth skin beneath. As his eyes took in the skimpy material covering my breasts he let out a soft moan and I took the opportunity to pull out of his embrace and stand up next to the bed. Taking a few steps back I slipped the shirt off of my shoulders and let it pool on the floor behind me. 

Making sure to hold his gaze my hands reached down to my cut-offs, where I made short work of the zipper and let go of the shorts so that they fell down my legs. Stepping out of them I run my hands down the sides of my body before taking a step back towards Brian, who had now moved to sit on the edge of the bed and watch me. 

“You are a goddess.” He whispered, his hands reaching out to me. 

I took a hold of his hands before surprising him by pulling him up so that he was stood in front of me. With that I slowly un-did the buttons of his shirt before pushing it back over his shoulders so that it could fall to join the rapidly growing pile of clothes on the floor. 

I lifted his arms up before reaching back down to grasp the hem of his t-shirt to pull it quickly over his head. My gaze flicked over his stomach and chest before coming to rest on the bulge in his jeans, swallowing as I saw the length of him outlined clearly through the denim. I reached down and pulled on his zipper, waiting for him to twist his hips slightly so that the jeans fell down his legs and he was able to kick them off, where they came to rest on top of the other clothes. 

My heart was already beating fast but as I let my gaze travel over his body I felt it accelerate even more and realised that my breath was coming out of me in pants. I looked up to see Brian watching me with hooded eyes, waiting for me to make the first move. 

As our eyes met we both reached out for one another at the same time and before I knew what was happening I felt myself spun around and thrust back onto the bed so that I was laying on my back looking up at him.

I heard Brian sigh softly as he lowered his head to my chest, where he started to cover every inch of my skin with kisses and gentle nips, causing my body to arch up off of the bed. 

“You taste so sweet.” He mumbled, his lips gliding softly over the skin of my stomach. I watched fascinated, as my stomach moved up and down in time with my pants as he covered every part of me that he could see with tender caresses and licks. 

I luxuriated in the feeling of him exploring my body with his mouth and was just about to take off my bra when Brian reached up to lift me off of the bed and reached around behind me to un-do the clasp of it himself. 

I shook the straps off of my shoulders and watched Brian tug the bra off of me before throwing it carelessly towards the floor. 

His eyes never left my breasts and I felt my insides pool as his gaze took in my already swollen nipples, which lengthened even more as he lustfully appraised me.  
Brian reached out to grab one of the glasses of champagne from the bedside cabinet and slowly tipped the glass so that the liquid spilled over the edge and onto my breasts. As the liquid coursed over my skin he lowered his mouth to my nipple and took it in his mouth, his tongue darting around to twirl around the swollen bud. The sensation of the cool liquid combined with the intense heat of his mouth was enough to make me groan and I couldn’t help but reach down and grab the back of his head as my back arched even more off of the bed. 

He poured more liquid out of the glass and it trickled down my chest, coming to rest in the slightly concave curve of my stomach. Brian leaned down and licked up the champagne, drinking it off of my skin before placing the glass back on the table beside us. 

Once it was gone he looked up at me and raised his mouth to mine, kissing me so that I could taste the champagne on his lips. 

Wanting to make him feel as good as I did I reached up and rolled him over so that I found myself straddling his hips. Grinning down at him I reached for the glass and did the same to him, letting the liquid fall out of the glass and stream down his chest.

Putting the glass back I quickly lowered my head to his chest, where I licked at the trail leading through his chest hair into the patch of hair that led into his boxers as my hands traced patterns in the soft smattering of hair. 

Feeling reckless I reached inside his boxers and tugged at the waistband, letting his cock spring out of the cotton material. Looking up to see him watching me I moved to lower my head to his dick but didn’t get very far as he reached down and pulled me back up so that I was resting on top of him.

“Don’t.” he told me softly. “I want the first time I cum with you to be inside you.”

My lips curved into a smile and I nodded as I bent down to meet his lips in another kiss, feeling his hands wander over my body and come to a stop when he was grasping my knickers. He tugged on the straps and I twisted my hips so that he was able to pull the skimpy material down my legs and add it to the pile on the floor.   
I watched as he reached down and pulled a condom out of his jean pockets before he turned back to face me. I pulled myself up the bed so that I was propped up on the pillows and looked up at him from beneath my lashes, watching with baited breath as he moved his body to cover mine. 

After dropping a tender kiss on my lips he sat back and rolled the condom down over his length before turning to look at me. I hadn’t realised it but my hand was idly running over my stomach with anticipation as I waited for him to turn back to me and I gasped as he noticed and grabbed my hand, moving it so that my own fingers were running gently over the soft folds of my core. 

As I noticed how wet I was I felt my cheeks colour but didn’t have chance to dwell on it as Brian pulled my hand up to his mouth and placed the fingers in his mouth.

I swallowed thickly, watching as he licked my juices off my fingers and grinned up at me.

“I think you’re ready.” He told me, meeting my eyes as I tried not to melt into a puddle right in front of him. Watching him lick the evidence of my arousal off of my fingers was one of the most erotic things I had ever seen. 

Growing impatient, needing to feel him inside me, I pulled my fingers out of his mouth and he positioned his body on top of me, lifting one of my legs up and looking down between us as he guided his cock towards my entrance. I reached down and grasped his length in my hand and placed it at the entrance to my opening before looking back at him.

Our eyes locked on each other and neither of us looked away as he sunk every inch of himself deep inside me. 

“You fit me like a fucking glove.” He ground out, looking down at me with lust clouded eyes. 

I nodded breathlessly, feeling my insides open up to accommodate him. It felt like I was made for him, a mould created to hold him perfectly inside of me. 

His eyes burned into mine as he started to move his body so that he was sliding his length slowly in and out of me and I felt my core clench as already, I felt my insides begin to quicken. 

“You feel so good.” I managed, watching as the sweat beaded on his upper lip, wrapping my legs around his waist to pull him even closer.

“I’m not going to last baby.” He warned me, reaching down to meet my lips in a kiss.

I moaned my agreement, revelling in the feeling of him driving himself in and out of me, causing my body to shiver as I sensed him getting closer to his release. I threw my head back and groaned wantonly as his thrusts caused me to pant harder, attempting to keep my eyes open so I could watch the expression on his face as he slammed back and forth. I matched his rhythm and started to grind my hips upwards to meet his and the feeling of him being so deep inside me caused my whole body to shake. I noticed that my feet were growing numb and knew that this meant that I was close and looked up at him, reaching up to press my lips sweetly against his. 

“I’m going to cum Brian.” I told him frantically, reaching around to rake my finger nails down his back.

My words were enough to send him spiralling over the edge and I watched as his eyes squeezed closed and he bit down on his bottom lip, his legs starting to shake as he began to empty himself inside of me. As if my body knew that he was there I felt my body crest and threw my head back onto the pillow as shockwaves of pleasure tore through me. I heard Brian call my name before he collapsed on top of me, his hands reaching up to swipe a strand of damp hair off of my forehead.

My eyes opened to see him watching me and I felt my lips curl into a grin.

“That was so worth the wait.” I told him breathlessly. 

He grinned back at me, moving across the bed to grab one of the glasses, which he drank from thirstily before offering some to me. 

I swallowed the cool liquid hungrily before replacing the glass and propped myself up so that I could look at him. Idly I trailed my finger through the now damp hair on his chest before moving lower to trail over his stomach, my eyes not straying from his as his lips curled into a smile.

“We haven’t even started yet.” He winked, his hand moving to rest on mine and lower it to his stiffening cock. 

My eye’s widened in surprise as I felt his cock grow hard in my hands but the surprise was quickly replaced with desire as Brian’s head dipped down and he took a nipple into his mouth….


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things take a turn for the worse...

I awoke to the sound of Brian snoring softly beside me and felt my lips curve into a smile as memories from the night before came flooding back. Opening my eyes I looked at the body beside me and saw that he was smiling slightly as he slept. His hair was falling to cover one of his eyes so I leant over and swiped it out of his face, smiling as he mumbled slightly but quickly moving my hand so as not to wake him.

I moved gently to the edge of the bed and padded softly over the plush carpet to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror I couldn’t help but let the smile on my face grow wider. My hair was mussed and tangled and my lips were swollen. It had been some night.

While the first time had been quick the second time hadn’t been, and neither had the time after that. We hadn’t got much sleep and my body ached where muscles that hadn’t been used for a long time had been put to use. Relishing the soreness between my legs I grinned into the mirror one last time before hurriedly brushing my teeth and throwing my hair into a pony tail. 

I walked back into the bedroom and was unsurprised to find Brian still sleeping. Last night had been incredible. We had explored each other’s bodies long into the night and not left an inch of each other’s skin untouched. While I had expected the sex to be good Brian had been mind blowing. He was masterful between the sheets and it seemed like he knew just what my body was craving before I even knew it myself. 

“Morning.” Brian said sleepily, snapping me out of my thoughts. I had been too busy day dreaming to notice that he had woken up and was not watching me from the bed.

I grinned and rushed over to the bed, throwing myself into his arms with abandon.

“Someone is in a good mood this morning.” He commented with a grin as I squeezed my arms around him and looked up until his eyes.

“Wonder why that is?” I said, looking up at him coquettishly from beneath my lashes. 

Brian laughed, dropping a kiss on my forehead. “I don’t know… you tell me.”

I pulled myself out of his arms, positioning myself so that I was straddling him. “It’s because of you.” 

He smiled, sitting up so that he could slide his arms around my waist and reach down to squeeze my ass. He was just leaning in to kiss me when we heard the door knock.

“Let me in!” Beth called anxiously from the other side of the door. “It’s important!”

“Piss off.” I shouted at the door, only half joking. “We will be down in an hour.”

Beth hammered on the door again. “I’m not joking! Let me in!”

I groaned in frustration and climbed off the bed resignedly, knowing from the tone of her voice that she was serious and wouldn’t go away until I answered. I quickly picked up my white shirt and knickers before throwing Brian his boxers from the floor. 

“Coming!” I called, hurriedly pulling on my underwear and wrapping the shirt around me to cover my modesty.

Opening the door I found myself having to take a step back as Beth come flying into the room.

She looked around the room, noting the candles and empty champagne bottle and her mouth curved into a grin. She looked at Brian and winked before looking back at me. “Nice.” She told us smirking. “It stinks of sex in here by the way.” 

I felt my cheeks grow hot as Brian laughed and rushed to the window, opening it as wide as it would go before walking back over to Beth and punching her lightly on the arm. “What’s so important?”

“You will not believe who fucking called me this morning!”

I stood watching at her for a few seconds, waiting for her to continue until I realised that she was waiting for me to answer. “Who called you?”

“Rolling-fucking-stone!” she exclaimed excitedly. Her language always took a turn for the worse when she was excited.

“The magazine?” I asked, my face creasing in surprise. 

“No…” she said sarcastically. “The band.”

I rolled my eyes and turned to see Brian laughing from his perch on the end of the bed before I turned back to her. “What did they want?” 

She put her arms on my shoulders. “That want to interview us for their ‘hot new bands’ section!”

My mouth dropped open as her words sunk in and I threw my arms around her. “That’s amazing!” I replied happily. “When?” 

“One of their team is going to come and watch the show tonight and then they are going to ask us some questions afterwards before interviewing us properly in the morning.” She told me.

I pulled myself out of her arms and turned to see Brian watching us. “Did you know anything about this?” I questioned him, wondering if this had something to do with the guys.

“Nope.” He said getting to his feet and shaking his head. “Congratulations guys, this is great news!”

I grinned and nodded happily as he threw his arms around me in a hug before doing the same to Beth. 

“Have you told the boys?” I asked Beth, referring to Chris and Rick. 

She shook her head. “Your room was nearest. Shall we go and do it now?” 

I nodded and turned to Brian. “You coming?” 

“Nah,” he said shaking his head. “I’ll jump in the shower and see you when you get back.” 

I nodded and turned to walk out the door before Beth put a hand out to stop me. “I don’t think you should walk around the hotel like that.” 

I looked down at my shirt, which was now gaping open and heard Brian laugh again. 

“Shit!” I exclaimed covering myself up, watching Beth shoot Brian a wink.

 

The guys were just as excited as us and the following day was spent on a high. We decided that this was the perfect time to step things up a notch and throw in some new songs so we talked about what we were going to add and remove from the set list. It was decided that we would throw in a couple of rockier songs, as this is what we enjoyed doing most so we made sure to run through them at sound check to make sure that we still had everything down. 

The guys had come to watch us and give us their opinion and I was relieved when we finished the run through and they told us that they thought the new songs were really good. 

“I can’t believe we are going to be in Rolling Stone magazine!” Chris said for the hundredth time. “This could be it guys!”

“This will be it you mean.” Rick said grinning, ever the optimist.

I laughed happily and tried to ignore the nerves that were creeping up on me, twisting my stomach into knots.

We were still stood around chatting when someone came in and told us that they were about to open the doors to start letting in the fans so we started to make our way backstage when I felt Brian take hold of my hand. I had stayed pretty quiet while the others talked excitedly, my mind occupied with things that could go wrong. Brian obviously noticed.

“You ok?” he asked, concern clear on his face.

“Nerves.” I told him simply, attempting a smile. 

“Come on, let’s go and find somewhere quiet.” He decided, pulling me in the opposite direction from the others.

I nodded lamely, letting him lead me to what appeared to be a meeting room, where he sat on a large couch in the corner of the room and pulled me down so that I was sitting on his lap.

“I should be excited.” I muttered, seeing that he was waiting for me to speak. “I hate how fucking nervous I get.” 

Brian smiled and reached up to flick a strand of hair behind my ear. “This is normal.” He reassured me. “Sal used to get sick with nerves when we first started out.”

I nodded, biting down on my lip. 

“You will get past this.” Brian went on. “The reporter is going to love you all. It’s going to be fine. I promise.”

I nodded, standing up and walking to the corner of the room where there was a full length mirror propped up against the wall.

I had decided to wear a denim playsuit and a pair of my favourite wedges. The playsuit hugged my curves and showed off my long legs without leaving me looking trashy. I run my fingers through my hair, which Beth had styled to sit in huge curls that bounced just below my shoulders, and tried to summon some excitement. As I examined my reflection in the mirror Brian came up behind me and put his arms around my waist, leaning towards me so that he could rest his chin on my shoulder.

“Look at you.” He whispered, his voice causing shivers to course through me as his eyes met mine in the mirror. “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

I smiled, turning round to let him pull me into his embrace. He dropped his lips to my neck and I shivered as his caresses caused me to break out in goosebumps. 

“What would I do without you?” I whispered, feeling my confidence start to return.

“Come on.” He urged, his head straightening up so that he could look at me. “Let’s get back to the others.”

I grinned and let him pull me back towards the others but stopped when we got close enough to the dressing rooms to hear the others, tugging on Brian’s hand so that he had to turn and face me. 

“So, are we making another early exit tonight?” I asked, lowering my voice so that no one would overhear.

Brian’s mouth curled into a smile but before he had chance to say anything I pressed my body against his and tilted my head up so that I could touch my lips to his.   
Things were just beginning to heat up when I heard someone clear their throat a couple of steps away from us. 

“Can we not get a second’s peace?” I joked, turning and expecting to see one of the gang. 

I saw that it was someone that we didn’t know so guiltily jumped away from Brian and shot the stranger an apologetic smile. 

“Sorry…” Brian said. “Didn’t realise anyone would be around here.”

The guy standing in front of us adjusted his shoulder bag and brazened it out, giving us a wide smile before sticking out a hand out in greeting.

“No worries.” He grinned, his attention focused on me. “I think you are expecting me… I’m Mike from Rolling Stone magazine.”

“Oh yeah, hi!” I stuttered, shooting Brian a brief look of panic. We hadn’t yet had the talk about whether or not we wanted anyone apart from the others to know   
about us. The last thing we needed was an article focusing on our blossoming relationship rather than the band.

Remembering my manners I reached out for his hand, shaking it gently while I tried to compose myself. “Nice to meet you, I’m…”

“Emma.” He finished for me, his gaze now flicking to look at Brian. “And this is Q.”

I felt my mouth drop open but quickly shut it, damning the fact that I knew my cheeks were glowing red. 

“Shall we head back towards the others?” Brian suggested, motioning towards the dressing rooms and easily taking charge of the situation.

I nodded and turned the corner, rapidly walking into the dressing room and seeing the others all chilling out and killing time as usual. They looked up as I walked through the doors.

“Well. That was quick.” Sal joked, turning to grin at the others. “I know Bri is getting on a bit but I would have thought that he would be able to last longer than that.” 

The others started to laugh but soon stopped on seeing Brian walk into the room with Mike. 

“This is the journalist from Rolling Stone… Mike.” Brian told them, shooting daggers at Sal. 

Chris snorted, covering a laugh and I saw Beth’s eyebrows shoot up. 

Sal quickly stood up, grimacing in apology as he attempted to walk past me. “In that case we will leave you to your interview.” 

“No need to leave on my account.” Mike said confidently. “I was just stopping by to introduce myself before the show.”

Rick, Chris and Beth stood up and made to shake his hand as I caught Brian’s eye and shot him a look of panic. 

After the introductions had been made Mike gestured towards the door and turned to face me. “Guess I’ll go and get ready for the show. See you afterwards.”

With that he was gone. As soon as the door had closed behind him I put my head in my hands and felt Brian reach out to place a hand around my shoulders.

“That was so embarrassing.” I moaned, after telling the others what had happened. “Do you think he will write about that?”

Brian met my eyes but quickly looked away, looking to the others for something to say.

“I would be surprised if he didn’t.” Murr told me honestly. “Rumours sell magazines after all.”

I groaned again but was interrupted before I could say anymore as one of the crew came and told us that it was time to head to the stage.

Beth approached me, pulling me into a hug. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just concentrate on putting on a good show.”

I sighed and pulled out of her arms, looking up to see her grinning widely. “Let’s do this.”

Rick, Chris and Beth filed out of the room and I hurriedly leaned in to drop a brief kiss on Brian’s cheeks before following them. 

We grouped together for our huddle before listening for the voice announcing us onto the stage. I paused briefly to take a deep breath before I found myself being pushed lightly by Rick, urging me onto the stage.

Making sure to transform my face into a smile I bounded out onto the stage and grinned out at the crowd. 

“Hey y’all!” I said, taking the mic off of its stand. “You ready for a good night?”

The crowd cheered and I took a breath as the others started playing the intro to our cover version of ‘Eye of the Tiger.’ I put what had happened out of my mind and threw myself into the song and was surprised to find that it was easy to forget everything and focus on making sure that we performed an amazing show.   
The new songs we did went down really well and I let relief wash over me as I located Mike in the crowd and saw that he was grinning widely, his head moving in time with the beat. 

Before I knew it the others were coming to the front of the stage and we were taking our bow and basking in the adoration coming from the thousands of people in front of us. 

As we walked off of the stage the cheers started to die down and I turned to the others, a relieved look on my face. “That was ace!”   
We had only just pulled the curtain up and walked behind it when I found myself enveloped in a hug. Knowing instantly that it was Brian I rested my head on his chest and looked up at him.

“Good huh?” I grinned. 

He nodded and reached down to run a hand through my curls. “Better than good.” He replied. “It was amazing.” 

“We better head back to the bar, the journalist will be waiting.” Rick said from beside me. “You ready?” 

I nodded, reluctantly stepping away from Brian and reaching up to kiss him and wish him a good show.

We got into the backstage bar to find that Mike was already sat on a table, some notes in front of him as he sipped from a tall glass of soda. 

As we headed towards him he looked up and I saw his eyes flick up and down Beth’s body, taking in the skimpy camisole she was wearing along with a short denim skirt. I felt my mouth curve into a grin, having seen a hundred men fall victim to Beth’s good lucks and smoking body. 

“Great show guys!” Mike exclaimed, his eyes reluctantly leaving Beth to take in the rest of us. “Really amazing!”

Rick grinned and was the first to speak. “Thanks a lot. It means a lot to hear that from someone like you.” He said humbly. “You must have seen hundreds of amazing bands.”

Mike nodded, before turning to face me and Beth, who had sat down in front of him around the table. “Not many have girls like you two though.” 

Beth’s eyebrows shot up and she gave him a flirty grin, causing me to laugh as my cheeks flamed. 

“They don’t?” she asked, playing coy.

“No.” Mike said shaking his head and holding her gaze. “You are enchanting up there.” 

This time I wasn’t the only one to laugh, Rick and Chris joined in.

“Why do you think we asked them to join the band?” Rick cracked. 

Mike laughed before leaning back and swivelling his gaze to me. “Shame one of you is taken.”

I was just able to stop my mouth falling open and stop myself saying something stupid. 

“So… that is what this is going to be about?” I said archly after a beat.

This time it was Mike who raised his eyebrows before looking at me with renewed interest. “Fair enough.” He commented, being smart enough to drop the subject.

After that it was all plain sailing. We sat chatting with him for nearly an hour but eventually he told us that he had enough for now and would see us again in the morning to go over anything that he had missed. We all stood up and politely shook his hand and I was unsurprised to see Mike linger when he got to Beth.   
Wanting to be there when Brian got off stage I hid my smile and turned to walk back to the dressing rooms, leaving the rest of them to it. 

 

It was getting light when me and Brian fell back into the hotel room but far from being tired there was only one thing on my mind. I had been looking forward to being alone with him from the moment since we had woken up and while we had spent the night dancing and sharing stolen kisses my body ached to have his hands and mouth on me. 

Brian had only just closed the hotel room door and turned to face me when I flung myself at him, jumping up so that he had to support my weight. He was clearly just as desperate for this as me and quickly turned around and pinned me up against the wall so that he could concentrate on mashing his lips against mine as he run his hands down to cup my ass. My heart started to pound wildly as our lips moved together and I felt my body pressed up against his. 

His tongue darted out to duel with mine and I moaned into his mouth as my hands reached up to run through his hair, tugging lightly and eliciting a groan from Brian that connected deep within my core. 

Without me realising it Brian had crossed the room and suddenly I found myself flung onto the bed, where I bounced once before coming to rest with my legs over the edge of the mattress. I looked up at Brian breathlessly and watched him pull my shoes off before standing up and tugging the t-shirt that he was wearing over his head. My eyes feasted on his body and followed the trail of hair running down his chest until it disappeared underneath his waistband and I realised that I was biting my lip, my pulse now beating an erratic rhythm as I waited to see what he was going to do next.

“What do you want baby?” he asked me, his hands reaching down to un-do the zipper on his jeans. 

I watched as he pulled down the zip and stepped out of his jeans, not taking his eyes off of me as I lay there panting on the bed. 

“I want you.” I told him, lifting myself up so that I could prop myself on my elbows and watch him. 

“You got it, Emma.” He replied, taking a step towards me and pulling me up so that I was sat on the edge of the bed facing him. 

I reached down to start undoing the buttons on my playsuit but Brian grabbed my hands and put them down by my side. 

“Let me undress you.” 

I nodded instinctively, willing to let him do whatever he wanted to me and his hands moved to my buttons, where he un-did every one of them with care, until he got down to the bottom one. With that he pulled open the material and I lifted my arms so that he could slip it off of my shoulders and pull it down so that it was now only covering my bottom half. 

Taking a step back, he took a hold of my hands and pulled me off of the bed so that I was standing in front of him. A slight twist of my hips had the playsuit falling down my legs and pooling at my feet. I stepped over it and kicked it across the room carelessly before looking back to see Brian’s gaze wandering up and down my body, clad now only in my black bra and a skimpy pair of black knickers. 

“You are so fucking beautiful Emma.” He breathed, his hand reaching out to run down the side of my body.

The contact caused me to moan and I made to step towards him but he put a hand up to stop me before spinning me around so that he could take off my bra. Once that was done he reached down and pulled down the lacy scrap of material which was now the only thing covering me, before turning me back round to face him again.

I looked up to his eyes to see them alight with lust and waited for him to look back up and meet my eyes. 

“My turn.” I said eagerly, reaching out to slide his jeans down his body. 

As his trousers hit the floor I saw that his cock was already straining at his boxers and I couldn’t resist reaching out my hand and running a finger down his length, stopping at the end, where a drop of pre-cum had already soaked through the cotton material covering him.

Not wasting any time, I pulled the material down and waited for him to step out of the boxers before turning my attention back to the throbbing member in front of me. Deciding that I wanted to make him cum with my mouth I got to my knees and looked back up at him to see his eyes glazed over. Wasting no time I reached out to grasp him and took his length in my hands.

Running my fingers over the silky soft skin of his cock, I slowly started to move my hand up and down in a rhythm that caused his breath to start coming out of him in pants. Unable to resist the urge to take him in my mouth and taste him I lowered my lips to the head of his cock where I lapped softly at the bead of precum that had reappeared. 

Moaning my appreciation I heard him gasp and grinned up at him wickedly before taking his whole cock into my mouth. Wanting to make him feel as good as was able to make me feel I started to bob my head up and down and took a hold of his thighs to steady myself as I felt him reach out to fist a handful of my hair.  
Urging me on, his moans got louder and more frequent and I started to run my fingers lightly over the puckered skin of his balls, causing them to tighten in my hands. Wanting to push him over the edge I run my fingers over the area of skin between his balls and ass and was rewarded when I heard him utter a garbled version of my name.

Looking up at him I saw that he was watching me from beneath lidded eyes and I grinned around his cock before upping the pressure and reaching up to envelop the bottom of his shaft with one of my hands as my mouth worked tirelessly to push him over the edge.

He was now moaning and whispering my name, his legs shaking slighty and I was not surprised when less than a minute later he warned me that he was close. “I’m going to cum Emma.” 

I nodded slightly, letting him know that I wanted him to and mere seconds later I felt his cock begin to twitch in between my lips as he started to pour himself into my mouth. His hands reached down to cup my head and I milked him gently, relishing the taste of his cum as it gushed into my mouth. The second his cock had stopped spurting he pulled me up so that I was stood in front of him, licking my lips as his eyes met mine, my mouth curved into a wide smile. 

Returning my smile he pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips almost violently against mine in a kiss that made me weak at the knees. 

“You are so fucking amazing baby.” He ground out, lowering his head to take one of my nipples in his mouth. 

I threw my head back and let him lower me onto the mattress but stopped him as I felt him start to trail kisses down my body. I was desperate to feel him inside me and didn’t want to wait one more second. 

“Fuck me Brian.” I demanded as he looked up at me.

He nodded and quickly grabbed a condom out of his jeans pocket and wasted no time in slipping the protection over his length.

“How do you want it baby?” he asked, his breath still coming out of him in pants from his recent orgasm.

I grinned up at him before getting onto my hands and knees, where I turned and looked at him from over my shoulders. “I want it from behind.” I told him wantonly.

Brian’s eyes lit up as he heard my words and he wasted no time in climbing onto the bed, where he positioned himself so that he was right behind me and his cock was lined up with my opening. Reaching out he took a hold of my hips and I looked over my shoulder again to see him looking up at me. 

I nodded slightly and with that he pulled on my hips so that his cock sunk into me. I groaned as I felt myself open up around him and I leaned my head down to rest against the mattress as I got accustomed to his size. He waited a few seconds for me to get used to the feeling of having him so deep inside of me but I soon felt ready and picked my head back up to shoot him a nod. 

Brian began slowly easing himself in and out of me at a tortuously slow pace, causing me to emit quiet whimpers as his balls slapped against me. Wanting more I started to slam my hips back onto his and Brian soon got the idea and grabbed my hips harder as he started to pound into me mercilessly.  
By now Brian was moaning right along with me and I felt one of his hands leave my hips to grab a fistful of my hair, which he used to pull my head back so that I could meet his eyes. 

Just watching him fucking me from behind was enough to make my pussy squeeze around him and I saw his eyes close in pleasure as he felt me tighten around him. 

“You are so fucking hot Emma.” 

Never before had I felt so wanted, as this amazing man pounded into me from behind and pushed me closer and closer to the edge. I thought that I had enjoyed good sex before but with Brian it was different, after mere minutes I already felt like I was close to orgasm and everything he did pushed me closer to my release.

“Keep fucking me Brian.” I replied breathlessly, “I want it harder.”

Brian obeyed my wish and I heard his body slap against mine loudly as he slammed into me with all of his might. The grip on my hips became only just less than painful but I found myself wanting him to hold me harder and pushed my body back on his as savagely as I could.

We continued like this for a few more minutes, the room filled with the sounds of our fucking, but all of a sudden Brian pulled out of me and spun me over so that I was laying on my back looking up at him.

“I want to watch you cum baby.” He told me breathlessly, not wasting a second in grabbing my legs and opening them so that he was able to slam himself back into my aching pussy.

I threw my arms around him and pulled him down so that he had to kiss me and groaned as he found a rhythm that I knew was going to make me cum in no time. His tongue darted out to mimic the movements of his cock as I felt my body hurtling towards my orgasm and I relished the contact, thrusting my tongue back to meet his in an erotic dance.

Brian broke our kiss and pulled himself back up onto his arms and I realised that my eyes were shut so I opened them to find his rich brown eyes boring into mine and felt my lips curl into a smile as I noticed that he was clearly holding back.

Not wanting to keep him waiting I reached down and started to run my fingers over the swollen bud crying out for attention between my legs and almost instantly I   
felt my body start to shake.

“That’s it baby.” Brian groaned, “Cum with me.”

Watching him, watching me was enough to push me over the edge and I fought to keep my eyes open as my body started to spiral and shockwaves of pleasure coursed outwards from my core. As I started to crest I watched as Brian’s arms stiffened and he began to shake slightly as his cock erupted once more. 

“Fuck Brian…” I managed as he emptied his seed into me.

Dots appeared behind my eyes and I straightened my legs to control the contractions rolling over me as we rode out our orgasms together. His thrusts started to slow down as his cock twitched for the last couple of times. 

“So fucking good…” he mumbled, his eyes not leaving mine.

As soon as his orgasm has eased he collapsed on top of me and our bodies met with a sweaty slap as we sunk back into the mattress. 

I put my arms around him and held him close to me as his breathing slowed down until eventually he looked up to meet my eyes. He held my gaze as his cock slipped out of me and he moved so that he was lying next to me, propped up on his elbow as we both caught our breath. 

“You are amazing.” He told me smiling, his breath finally slowing to a normal rate.

I nodded and reached over to drop a gentle kiss against his lips. “I didn’t know that it could be this good Brian.” 

“Me neither.” He replied. “I could fuck you forever.”

I laughed, pulling him close and resting my head on his chest, my eyes beginning to feel heavy. “Promise?” 

Now it was Brian’s turn to laugh and I felt him run his hands over my hair before coming to rest on my back as he settled beside me and leant back on the pillow. “I promise.” 

 

What seemed like minutes later I was woken by the jarringly loud sound of my alarm. I quickly reached out for it and turned it off before turning to see if it had woken Brian up, surprised to still see him sleeping soundly next to me, his arm draped over me. Looking at the time and seeing that I had barely had a couple of hour sleep I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and realised that I had to get moving if I didn’t want to be late for our follow up interview with Mike. 

A shower went some way to making me feel better but I still felt the need to fetch my Rayban Wayfarers out of my bag and pull them down to cover my eyes as I headed towards the door. I had just pulled it closed as softly as I could when I heard the hotel room phone start to ring but a glance at my watch told me that I was already running late so I would just have to let Brian wake up and answer it.

I hurriedly made my way down to reception and saw that as I had expected I was the last one to rock up. Chris, Rick and Beth were sat around a table but as they spotted me Beth stumbled to her feet and offered me a rueful grin.

“I blame you for this.” She told me, shaking her head.

“How d’ya figure that?” I asked, reaching to pick up one of the coffees off of the table. 

“Well, we were celebrating your birthday.” She replied grinning.

Rick and Chris mumbled their hellos and got to their feet and we proceeded to make our way to the meeting room where we had arranged to meet Mike. 

On walking into the room I tried to put a casual smile on my face, noticing with chagrin that Mike looked fresh and ready for the interview. Regretting the decision to go out last night I stuck out a hand, which he shook before motioning for me to take one of the four seats in front of him.

We chatted casually for a few minutes and I found myself zoning out but was yanked back to the present when I heard Beth’s voice raised in what I recognised was annoyance. 

“That’s crap!” she repeated as I turned to look at her. “Where did you read that?”

I noticed that her face had drained of colour and that Rick and Chris were staring at me. Sensing that something was about to go horribly wrong I turned to Mike to see him looking at me. 

“It’s all over the internet.” He said. “There are screenshots of a page from a well-known escort site where you were able to request Emma’s… erm… services.” 

To give him credit Mike blushed as he said this and his eyes lowered briefly before he looked back at me.

Beth’s head whipped towards mine and I felt the colour drain out of my face as the implications of this set in. Without having to think about it I realised that this was Ross’s doing and could only sit silent as the others waited for me to speak. 

“Who run the pictures?” I asked, unable to think of anything else to say.

“TMZ.” Mike told me before looking down at a piece of paper in front of him. “Can you confirm that this information is correct?”

Rick stood up and moved quickly to my side where he pulled me out of the chair and immediately turned me towards the door. 

“This interview is over.” Chris stated following mine and Rick’s lead and getting out of his seat. 

I quickly found myself bundled out of the door, where I waited for the door to close on Mike before turning to the others. 

Luckily they all knew about my past, I had told them the truth one night after a few too many drinks. They had never judged me and they had never questioned me when I told them that I never actually slept with the men I went out with. They were true friends and had my back and I knew that they would do everything they could to stop this getting out of hand. We were all smart enough to know that something like this could ruin an upcoming band’s chances if handled badly.

“I think we need to hire someone to help deal with this.” Rick decided, always the voice of reason.

I nodded but suddenly remembered the phone ringing as I left Brian asleep in the room. A sense of dread settled over me as I realised that it was probably someone ringing to tell him about all this.

“I need to get to Brian before someone else does.” I told them already turning to the lift. “I’ll see you later.”

With this I rushed over to the elevator but found myself panicking even more with every second that passed. When I saw the lift stop for the second time at another floor I groaned in frustration and decided to take the stairs. 

I vaguely saw the others still stood staring after me when I pushed open the doors to the stairs but didn’t stop, so concerned was I to get to Brian.

A sense of panic settled in my stomach when I saw Sal come walking out of our room with what appeared to be Brian’s bags. 

“Emma I don’t think…” he started but I merely walked past him and closed the door. 

My eyes scanned the room and I took a deep breath and took a step towards the bed just as Brian walked out of the bathroom, holding his toothbrush and his deodorant. 

“Brian this is all…” I started but was cut off. 

“You were a fucking call girl? Are you serious?” he ground out bitterly as he saw me standing there panting from my run up the stairs. 

“Brian I wasn’t, this is all so stupid.” I told him breathlessly. 

He marched over to the table where I had failed to notice an open laptop sitting there beside some of my things. Picking it up he stalked back towards me and spun the laptop to face me and I saw that the screen showed a picture of what used to be the page you could book me for nights out. 

Grimacing I reached out and pushed the screen down before trying to take the laptop from his arms. He pulled it away from me before I could get hold of it and stepped away before placing it down on the bed. 

“It isn't what you think Brian!” I said, taking a step towards him, my voice rising in panic. I knew how bad this must look and needed to explain before things got out of hand. “I have never slept with anyone for money.”

Before I could get any closer he held a hand up and I dared to meet his eyes. “Did you even want me at all?” he asked, his eyes cold. “Or are you just after the money and the fame?” 

I winced as if he had hit me and took a step back, my mouth falling open in shock. “Is that what you think? Do you think I am that good an actress?”

“Well what am I supposed to think?” he asked angrily, gesturing towards the now closed laptop. “It appears you have done worse for a quick buck.”

“I never slept with anyone for money!” I repeated, frustrated that I wasn’t getting through to him. “I used to go out with people for dinner and to functions and stuff and that’s it Bri. I promise.” 

“I knew this was too good to be true.” He said, more to himself than to me. “I knew things would fuck up like they always do!” 

My heart broke as I saw the look on his face and I watched as he looked up at me with disgust in his eyes. Needing to make him see the truth I walked over to him and put my hands on his shoulders and waited for him to look at me but he shook me off with ease and took a step back out of my reach, pointedly ignoring my stare.

“I should be happy I suppose.” He said bitterly. “At least I got you for free.” 

I gasped as I heard his words and without thinking I reached up and pulled my hand back to slap him, wanting to hurt him as much as he had just hurt me, but he caught my wrist easily. 

As soon as he had grabbed me he let me go and I stumbled back, tears filling my eyes as the fight died out of me. “I can’t believe you won’t even listen to me. How could you think this of me?” 

He looked at me, the tilt of his chin defiant and I knew then that this was pointless, nothing I could say was going to convince him. 

“Just stay away from me.” He said quietly, making to walk past me.

Frantically I threw myself at him, needing him to understand and grabbed his arm but he whirled to face me, his eyes hard and cold. “I said get the fuck away from me.”

The tone of his voice stung me and my hands dropped from his arm, my mouth falling open at his cruel words. My eyes blurred and I turned my head so that I didn’t have to watch him walk away. I sensed rather than heard the closed and I knew that I was alone.

I walked over to the bed and grabbed a pillow, curling up into a ball around it as the tears started to flow. In what seemed like minutes my life had come crashing   
down around me. Closing my eyes tightly I tried not to picture the image of Brian telling me to fuck off but it was all I could think about. 

I didn’t know or care how much time had passed was when I felt a hand start to stroke my back and I looked up to see Beth looking down at me sadly. 

“He wouldn’t even hear me out.” I mumbled through my tears. 

“Oh Emma.” She said, her own eyes filling with tears as she saw me crumble in front of her. “I’m sure things will work themselves out.”

I sat up and looked at her, hiccupping as the tears continued to fall. “He told me to stay away from him.”

As I said this I saw Beth’s eyes harden, just as Chris and Rick came walking into the room.

“I’m going to talk to him.” Beth said angrily, getting up off of the bed and marching past the lads. 

“Please don’t.” I urged her but she was already pulling the door open. She turned around and shot me a look before stepping into the corridor and pulling the door shut behind her.

I looked up at Chris and Rick in a panic but they merely came and sat down next to me, saying nothing.

“This is all so fucked up.” I exclaimed a couple of minutes later, reaching up to dry my eyes once the tears had begun to subside. 

“I can’t believe he didn’t even hear you out.” Rick said quietly, not daring to look me in the eye. “That’s cold man.”

As I listened to his words I realised that he was right and felt my guilt dwindling, quickly being replaced with anger. 

“You have to admit from where he is standing it doesn’t look good.” Chris piped up, jumping to Brian’s defence. 

Rick and I turned to stare at him and he quickly shook his head. “But still he should have at least listened to you.” 

We sat on the bed saying nothing for a while and all looked up when we heard the door open and saw Beth walk in, the expression on her face telling me that things didn't go well.

“I found him getting on the bus. They have gone without us.” She told us angrily.

“And?” I questioned, knowing that there had to be more to it.

“I gave him a piece of my mind and marched off.”

I groaned, putting my head in my hands as I pictured Beth going hell for leather out on the sidewalk. Not one to worry about causing a scene I know that it wouldn’t have been pretty. She had never been one to hold back, especially when someone had hurt one of her friends or family.

“Come on.” She said attempting a smile. “We need to hit the road, the bus is waiting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all of the positive comments. Let me know what you think of this chapter :)


	7. Chapter 7

As we walked out of the hotel I was dismayed to see that there were a handful of photographers waiting for us. They yelled questions at me and started taking pictures but Rick pulled me close, shielding my face and barrelling through them, not letting go of me until we were encased firmly on the bus.

The second we were on the coach the driver pulled off and I headed down to my bunk in silence, trying in vain to block out everything that had just happened.  
Rick, Beth and Chris wasted no time in jumping into action. We were on the road most of the day so this gave them plenty of time to sort things out. They made arrangements to have a publicist waiting for us when we got to the next hotel and Beth had even put out some inquiries about getting us a manager.

They left me sitting on my own in my bunk, sensing that I needed to be alone and I was surprised to see that by the time we pulled up at the next hotel that I felt a lot better. I had managed to get some sleep and while the second I had opened my eyes everything had come flooding back to me I knew that the only way to get through this was to act like everything was fine and try not to think about everything that had happened. 

If Brian didn’t want to hear me out then that was fine but I would be damned if I was going to let him see how much I was hurting. I had too much pride for that. Not that there was much danger of that right now, Brian and the others had gotten to the hotel long before us and there was no sign of them anywhere.

The publicist waiting for us at the hotel turned out to be a dream. A woman in her mid 30’s, her name was Jane and she clearly didn’t take any shit. After some rapid introductions she outlined a plan for what she wanted to happen next. There was no stopping the Rolling Stone interview coming out and unfortunately there was nothing we could do to stop them writing whatever they wanted. Jane planned to call them and offer them an exclusive follow up interview where I would come clean about the escorting and answer any other questions they may have, hoping that this would give me a chance to tell my side of the story. She asked if there was anyone to verify that I never slept with clients and I nodded, knowing that luckily, after leaving the agency on good terms, that the manager would certainly vouch for me. She decided that she would arrange the follow up interview for as soon as possible, so that it could hit the stands just after the dust had settled. 

The only bad part of the meeting came when Jane showed us what they were writing on the net. I hadn’t realised before but the fans were going crazy over what they were calling mine and Brian’s ‘secret relationship’, chronicling all of the times we had been spotted together in public and posting any pictures there were out there of the two of us. News of my ‘scandalous past’ had sent them into a frenzy and a lot of gossip sites had picked up the story. She warned us that I may face some backlash but it should die down once I had given my side of the story in the second interview. 

Jane asked if I wanted to admit what had happened with me and Brian in the second interview and the others advised me that I should, after all, I had nothing to hide and it would hopefully make people feel sympathetic towards me. I wouldn’t come right out and confirm it but I would inadvertently make it known what had happened.

After an hour or so it was clear that Jane knew what she was doing so it was agreed that she would take on the job as our publicist and we quickly signed some paperwork allowing her free reign with the press. As we went to check in I thanked her and was surprised when she pulled me in for a hug.

“This is all going to be fine.” She told me, her smile friendly. “I’ve seen footage of you on stage and you are all amazing. I am not going to let this get in the way of that.”

I found myself smiling for the first time that day and watched her walk out of the hotel before turning back to the others.

“I feel so much better now.” I told them, putting on a brave face. “Who fancies a drink?”

 

While I wanted to stay in the hotel and keep my head down Rick, Chris and Beth talked me into going out so we ended up in a nondescript bar near to the hotel and surprisingly Murr and Joe ended up joining us. They told me that whatever was going on, that it was none of their business and that they were not going to let it be a problem. While I had expected it to be awkward they both seemed absolutely fine with me and if anything I got the sense that they also thought that Brian should have at least listened to me and heard me out. Beth found out from Murr that Brian and Sal were holed up at the hotel and I felt a pang of sadness but quickly remembered the way Brian had looked at me back at the hotel room. While I understood that things didn’t look good I at least thought that he should have talked to me about it and the fact that he had been so cold had really stung. I decided that I was going to get on with things and just deal with things as they happened. There was no point dwelling on things, what was done was done after all. All that remained was to make sure that this didn’t ruin our shot.

The next day Jane called and informed us that Rolling Stone had accepted our offer of another interview and that Mike would meet us at the next stop to sit down with me. She had been told that while they would mention the rumours in the article coming out in the following days they would mainly focus on the music and keep any mentions of Brian and escorting to a minimum. Jane told me that this was great news and while I dreaded reading the finished article I tried to put it out of my mind for the time being.

I had spent the day holed up in my hotel room to avoid bumping into Brian but I knew that it was inevitable that we would see each other at the venue. The backstage area was too small for us to escape seeing each other so I steeled myself for whatever was going to happen.

Beth, Rick, Chris and I hurried through sound check and it was decided that we would open with our cover of ‘I Will Survive’ to show people that I was not going to let this stop me from doing what I loved. Sal had come to say hi to us after the sound check to see how we were all doing and tell me that just like Joe and Murr that he wasn’t going to get involved. 

Part of me hoped that I would see Brian but another part of me was glad when we were called to the stage and I had yet to bump into him. I was already dreading going on stage and having to pretend that everything was normal and the last thing I needed was a big scene to put me off.

The show was the worst we had done, in fact it was a disaster. The crowd was pretty much empty when we got on stage and while it had filled up slightly by the end it had felt flat compared to the other shows and the enthusiasm we had come to expect from the audience was sorely missing. I had even heard someone shout something horrible at me but had simply tried to ignore it and not let it bother me. 

On getting off the stage I felt my eyes fill up with tears as I turned to face the others. 

“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.” I told them sadly. 

They shook their heads and one by one pulled me into a hug, telling me that this was not my fault and that things would get better.

Stupidly, I let them talk me into to heading back to the guy’s dressing room to wish them luck for the show and while my heart was pounding frantically at the thought of having to face Brian we walked in to see that he was nowhere to be seen and that only Murr, Sal and Joe were sitting lounging around. Murr noticed the look of disappointment on my face and come to stand beside me, throwing an arm around my shoulder.

“It’s going to be alright Emma.” He said brightly, leaning down to drop a kiss on my cheek.

Just then I heard someone walk into the room and knew instantly that it was Brian. Everyone fell silent and they all turned to stare at the two of us as the room crackled with tension.

I spun around to face him but was just in time to see Brian turn back around and walk into the corridor. 

Before I had chance to think about it I shrugged out of Murr’s embrace and followed Brian out of the room to find him walking swiftly down the corridor, his shoulders hunched over.

“Brian, wait!” I called. 

He showed no signs of slowing so I broke into a run and reached out to grab his shoulder when I got close enough.

He whirled around and stopped suddenly, causing me to bump into him. As I caught a look at his face a pang of sadness hit me. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was more than dishevelled than usual and it was pretty obvious from the black bags under his eyes that he had managed to get even less sleep than me. 

“What Emma?” he asked resignedly. 

“We need to talk.” I replied, meeting his gaze. 

“Do we?” he questioned, his tone bored.

“You need to fucking listen to me!” I told him angrily. “I haven’t done anything wrong!”

With that he took a step towards me and leaned down so that his face was mere inches away from me. I took a deep breath and felt a pang of desire hit me as I caught the masculine scent of him that I loved so much. Not letting this sway me, I stood there, hands on hips, as I waited for him to say something. 

“You should have fucking told me!” he told me, his loud voice echoing around the corridor. “How do you think I felt having to read about this on a fucking gossip site?”

“It was years ago Brian.” I sighed, shaking my head in frustration. “You know I was alone back then, I had no family. I needed to make ends meet and stupidly decided that it was worth giving a go.” 

“Seriously?” he replied, shaking his head. “Sleeping with people for money was worth it?” 

As I realised that he still believed that I had actually slept with the clients my mouth curled into a sad smile. “You know what?” I said to him, steely resolve filling my eyes as I met his gaze. “If you actually believe that then you can fuck right off. You’re not who I thought you were.” With that I turned around and started to head back to the dressing room, willing myself to stay strong.

“Such morals from a whore…” he sneered as I retreated.

I whirled around and launched myself at him but didn’t get very far as all of a sudden I felt a set of arms snake around me and hold me back.

“Let me go!” I screamed, not even bothering to see who had taken hold of me. 

“Emma! Leave it!” Rick yelled, his arms holding me so tightly that I was powerless to do anything. 

“You’re an asshole!” I screamed at Brian, watching as he turned around and began to walk

away. “I can’t believe I let myself believe that we had something special!” 

As I yelled and screamed Rick pulled me back into the dressing room and I took a few deep breaths as he let go of me and led me to sit down on the coach. 

Concentrating on my breathing I didn’t realise how long I had been sitting there trying to reign in my emotions until I looked up and saw that it was only me and Beth left in the room now. 

“Where is everyone?” I questioned. 

“It’s show time. They are on stage.” She told me coming to sit beside me. “Rick and Chris decided to give you some space.”

I smiled up at her and shook my head. “I kind of lost it, huh?” 

She broke into a smile and reached over to pull me into a hug. “I forgot how scary you can be when you get like that.” 

I pulled back and smiled sadly, meeting her eyes. “I can’t believe what he said.”

“He’s a jack ass.” Beth agreed. “He doesn’t deserve you.” 

I stood up and walked over to the mirror, where I run my fingers through my hair before turning back to Beth and forcing a smile. “I need a drink.” 

Beth stood up and reached for my hand. “Come on, let’s go get drunk.”

 

Over the next couple of days I managed to totally avoid Brian. I spent my days trying not to think about everything and put on a brave face but I was doing a pretty miserable job of it. While I recognised that all this couldn’t have been easy on him I had expected more from him and the fact that he actually believed that I had slept with people for money had cut me deep. Joe, Murr and Sal were making an effort to act like nothing was wrong but the days of us all hanging out together before the shows were over. I kept to myself and while Beth, Chris and Rick sometimes hung out with the others, I steered clear of them, not wanting a repeat of what had happened a couple of days ago.

I heard that Brian was doing the same and pretty much keeping to himself, only leaving the hotel when he had to. Part of me missed him desperately and it was a constant battle not to think about him but I tried to concentrate on the shows and not let everything happening send me into a tailspin.

The next stop on tour had brought the return of Mike from Rolling Stone and Beth had come to the interview with me for moral support knowing that I couldn’t handle going alone. Seeing as he had already done his fact checking he knew everything so it was relatively pain free. 

“So it was simply something you did to keep a roof over your head?” Mike questioned, as if it what I had done was the most natural thing in the world. 

I nodded. “Yes it was and I don’t regret it. I needed to make ends meet and that’s what I did.” 

Mike smiled and wrote some notes before looking back up at me to continue. “Sources suggest that news of your past has put an end to a burgeoning relationship with Q. Is this true?”

I felt the colour drain out of my face and looked to Beth in a panic. She hurriedly reached for my hand and nodded slowly, causing me to pause and remember what we had talked about. 

Taking a breath to compose myself I looked back at Mike. “Yes, Brian and I had grown rather close on the tour but sometimes things happen and you get to see another side of someone. When it comes to my personal life I strive to surround myself with unconditional support. Sometimes things just don’t work out.”

I looked at Beth and saw her grinning and felt my lips curve into a smile. 

“Fair enough.” Mike said, jotting a few things down. “I think we are done here.” 

I stood up, stretching out my arms above my head before turning to Mike and holding out a hand. “Thanks for coming out again.” I told him smiling. 

“It was my pleasure.” He replied kindly.

I turned to face Beth and we were just about to walk out the door when I heard Mike clear his throat. “Actually, Beth, could I have a quick word?” he asked, nerves clear in his voice.

Beth nodded and I told her I would wait outside, hurrying to leave them alone and knowing that he was going to ask her out. You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that he had a thing for her. When he hadn’t been asking me questions his eyes had been glued to her.

Minutes later they came out of the room grinning, the look on Mike’s face telling me that she had agreed to go out with him.

“So I will see you at half 8?” he checked, pulling his bag over his shoulder. 

Beth nodded. “Can’t wait.” She grinned back, watching as he made his way over to the elevator before turning back to face me.

“Hot date?” I guessed.

She nodded and took my hand, leading me towards the entrance of the hotel. “He seems nice.” 

“Well, let’s go and read the article and see.” I replied wryly.

Today the edition of the magazine with the first article was hitting the stands so reluctantly I let Beth lead me down the street until we found the nearest news stand. Not bothering to wait to get back to the hotel we hurriedly bought a couple of copies, found a bench on the sidewalk opposite a small coffee shop and sat down to read.

I finished reading first and put the magazine down in my lap, watching Beth as she finished reading the short article. As soon as she had gotten to the end she looked up at me and grinned.

“It’s really good!” she announced, surprise clear in her voice. 

I nodded and grinned, my eyes flicking back down to look at the picture they had chosen. It was a picture of us on stage a couple of days ago and I wondered idly who had taken it, not having noticed any professional photographers in the audience at the time. 

Surprisingly there was no mention of my escorting, just a nod to the fact that I had been featured heavily on some of the gossip sites. There was only a brief mention of Brian, a sentence stating that ‘It is no surprise that Impractical Joker Q is rumoured to be enamoured with lead singer Emma.’ I saw with some surprise that they had managed to find a picture of us from the Muse gig, clearly having been taken by a fan standing right behind us, but while we had our arms around each other it could have been a hell of a lot worse. 

“At least now I can stop worrying about it.” I exclaimed. “I wish there wasn’t a picture of the two of us though.” 

Beth stood up and pulled me up with her, throwing her arm around my shoulders. “It really could have been a lot worse.” 

I nodded and grinned, deciding that she was right and focusing on the fact that this was hopefully the start of big things. Now I just had to ride things out for another week and await the publication of the next article. 

 

That night I noticed with some relief that the amount of people that had come to watch our set had grown again. Things were getting better and I walked off the stage happy that for the first night since the story broke that no-one had shouted anything nasty at me. While I knew that what the Joker’s fans were shouting was untrue it was still hard to hear. 

As soon as we had got off of the stage Beth ran off to get ready for her date with Mike and managed to talk me, Chris and Rick into going out to meet them both later at a popular club in town, so I decided to head back to the hotel and pack up my bags now instead of doing it in the morning before we hit the road again. I was in the mood to get drunk and knew that I would be grateful for the extra time in bed in the morning. 

Reading the article and seeing that it had not been as bad as I expected had made me feel a lot better so I decided that I was going to get dressed up and let off some steam. The last couple of days had been horrible, knowing that Brian was constantly close by. While I was still incredibly angry at him and the way that he had treated me I couldn’t help missing him and found my thoughts straying to him often. It had taken a lot of willpower to stay away from him, not even allowing myself to watch them on stage for the glimpse of him that I was desperate for. 

Hearing a knock at the door I knew it would be Rick and Chris and opened the door with a grin, ready to knock back some drinks and start putting the last couple of days behind me. 

“Wow!” Rick exclaimed, seeing my outfit. “Someone is ready to party!”

I glanced down at my tight black dress with a grin and gave them a little twirl. “Let’s get this show on the road!” 

I had worn one of my favourite black dresses, knowing that it flattered my curves and showed off my best features. I was sick of moping and hiding and was ready to face the world again. Even if it was a lie, I was going to put on a brave face and pretend that I was fine. It was the only way to get through this and I hoped that soon I wouldn’t have to pretend.

We started off by touring a couple of bars and I quickly got into the spirit of the night, downing as many drinks as I could get my hands on. I soon felt myself loosen up and tried not to dwell on everything that had happened as I started to try and put the last couple of days behind me. Rick and Chris were on fine form and their lively banter and excited mood soon had me smiling and joining in.

By the time we headed to meet Mike and Beth at the club we had arranged to meet them at I was feeling good and was comfortably on my way to getting drunk. We found them encased in the VIP area, having learnt that Mike knew one of the owners and had pulled some strings to get us a decent table.

As soon as I saw Mike I reached out my hand in greeting but was surprised when he pulled me into a hug. 

“Thanks for the article, Mike.” I told him when he had released me. “It was really great.”

He glanced at Beth before giving me a wide smile. “My pleasure, Emma.” 

I noticed that Beth had a dreamy look on her face, the look that told me she was more than interested and was having an amazing time with him. I felt a pang of jealousy lance through me but pushed it to the side and tried to feel happy that at least things were working out for one of us.

Seeing me watching her she pulled me close and leant into my ear. “He is so nice!” she whispered. “I really like him.”

Smiling fondly I nodded and was just about to say something when I glanced behind her towards the doors and was dismayed to see Murr, Joe and Sal walk in.

My heart stopped and I panicked, my eyes scanning the area around them to look for Brian but was relieved when I didn’t see him. 

Beth followed my gaze and shook her head. “You are going to have to face him at some point.”

“Well hopefully not tonight.” I replied archly. “I just want to let my hair down and forget about everything.”

The guys spotted us and made their way over and all of a sudden we found ourselves getting special treatment from the waitresses, the table quickly filling with a wide selection of drinks. Not that I was complaining, I was on a mission to get drunk and dance the night away and this meant that I didn’t have to waste time walking back and forth to the bar.

“Someone is on a mission.” Murr noted coming to sit next to me, watching as I picked up yet another shot and tipped it up to swallow it. 

“I just want to forget about the last week.” I told him. “I’m sick of feeling like the worst person in the world.” 

Murr grinned and put an arm around my shoulders, passing me another shot and picking up another one for himself. “In that case.” He told me. “Here’s to a good night.”

I smiled back, making short work of the shot before climbing out of my seat. “Let’s go dance.” 

Murr nodded and we quickly made our way onto the dancefloor, where we found some room. I let him lead me around the floor, spinning me around manically and laughed as he kept on pulling silly faces to make me giggle. 

We had been dancing for half an hour when I decided that I needed another drink so reached over to take Murr’s hand to lead him back to the table. “Drinks!” I shouted over the music.

He nodded so together we headed back to the table and we hurriedly polished off a few bottles of beer and a couple of shots before deciding to hit the dance floor again, grinning when Rick, Sal and Beth got up to join us.

It was easy to forget everything going on as we hit the dancefloor with a vengeance. We let our bodies move to the beat and I found myself being passed around the guys, being twirled around the floor by each of them in turn before we formed a circle and took it in turns to stand in the middle and move our bodies along with the music, showing off for each other and messing around.

I was watching Rick in the middle, attempting to do the ‘running man’ when I felt someone watching me. Scanning the area around the dancefloor I hoped that I was just being paranoid but I soon found the person watching me and felt my heartbeat accelerate as I looked into Brian’s impossibly brown eyes. 

Beth saw too and I saw her lips curve into a frown before she hurriedly leaned in towards me. “Please don’t leave.” She pleaded reaching out to put her hand on my shoulder, knowing that my instincts would urge me to run. “Just ignore him.”

I nodded before scanning the area around me and looking back at her gave her a wicked grin. “I’m going to do better than that.” 

Beth shook her head but I didn’t let this make me to stop to think as I turned to scan the dancefloor. I soon found what I was looking for and turned to face a tall dark haired guy dancing with a couple of friends next to me. I watched him move his body with the music for a couple of minutes before finally he turned to look at me. 

Seeing his eyes do a lazy sweep of my body I felt my lips curve into a grin before he looked back up to meet my eyes. I saw his mouth curl into a seductive smile and tried not to think about Brian as I held his gaze.

I nodded as if to give him permission and watched as he took a step towards me and held his hand out. Taking his hand recklessly I let him spin me around before his body came to rest on mine, his arms dropping casually around my waist as we moved to the music. He was so close to me that I could feel his breath on my neck.

Not daring to look at Brian to see if he was still watching I moved my hips against the random guy’s body and felt my heart start to pound as his hands moved brazenly over me. Putting my back into it I felt eyes on me and knew with a sixth sense that Brian was watching. I remembered the way that he had looked at me and the things that he had said to me and felt hurt lance through me. Wanting to hurt him as much as he hurt me I decided that I was going to show him what he was missing so turned around to face the stranger and found his eyes boring into mine. 

Sensing what I was about to do, he grinned before leaning in towards me. My lips were just about to meet his when I felt a hand on my arm and looked up into familiar brown eyes. 

“This ain’t happening Emma.” Brian growled, pulling me away.

My mind reeled as Brian kept a hold of me and the stranger was left staring after us as Brian pulled me towards the bar, looking down to shoot me a look as I struggled against his grasp.

“Let go of me!” I shouted as I fought to shake him off of me, my pleas falling on deaf ears.

A thrill coursed through me as I looked up at his face and saw the barely concealed anger there. I barely even noticed where we were going until Brian pulled me into a dark and dusty room and let go of me, shutting and locking the door behind us before turning to face me. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, running his hands through his hair in exasperation. 

“Whatever I want to.” I snapped back defiantly. “Not that it is any of your fucking business.”

I went to step towards the door but felt his hand on my arm and gasped as he spun me around to face him. Before I had chance to realise what was happening I felt his lips meet mine I a kiss that could be best described as savage. I was about to struggle but realised suddenly that I didn’t want to. All of a sudden it wasn’t the alcohol making my head spin.

My body reacted instinctively, having missed the contact and I let my lips work with his as he kissed me angrily and wrapped him arms around me to pull me even closer to him, until there was not even an inch between us. His grasp was almost painful but as his lips moved violently against mine the only thing I could think about was getting closer to him. 

I reached up to run my fingers through his hair and grabbed a handful, tugging his face down so that he could bury his head in my neck. Brian started to drop kisses down my collar bone and I moaned wantonly as his lips moved ever lower.

Letting my hands fall from his hair I skimmed over his shoulders and moved them lower until I was lifting the hem of his t-shirt and running my hands over the smooth planes of his back as he pulled my breasts free of my dress. As his lips encased a nipple I moaned again and arched my body up so that he could cup my breasts in the palms of his hands as his tongue swirled around my nipple. 

Not stopping to think, I felt his erection pressed against me and pulled my hand free of his t-shirt to grasp his cock through his jeans, earning a gasp from him that quickly turned into a growl as I squeezed my hands around his length and applied some gentle pressure. He was already throbbing and merely holding him in my hands was enough to start him panting. Knowing what I did to him turned me on even more and I knew that I would be ready for him already, desire was coursing through me and the anger I still felt towards him only added to the excitement. 

Leaning my head back against the wall I briefly looked around for long enough to see that we were in some kind of store room but didn’t have chance to care as Brian was now pulling my dress up and dropping to his knees. 

I opened my legs wider and shifted my body so that I was supported by the wall behind me as I watched Brian drop kisses along my stomach, just above the waistband of my knickers. He glanced up at me once to find my biting my lip but soon turned his attention back to the task at hand and pulled my underwear down to let it drop to the floor. 

Before my knickers had even landed at my feet he was reaching up to take hold of my hips and supporting me before pulling me forward so that he could lean in and run his tongue lightly against my swollen folds. I let my head fall back against the wall, revelling in the feelings that he was bringing about and focusing on the sensation of his tongue moving gently but firmly against me as I reached down and once again buried my hands in my hair. After days without his touch it felt like my body was coming alive again after a long sleep and I moaned loudly, letting him know how good he was making me feel.

Before long I felt my legs start to buckle but straightened my legs and urged him to stand up, by this point desperate to feel him inside me.   
Mashing his lips against mine he growled deep in his throat and I tasted myself on his lips. Our kisses were frantic, our bodies pressed tightly together as I felt Brian’s hands reach down to grab a condom out of his pocket. 

Taking a step back from me he handed me the small foil packet and hurriedly undid the buttons of his jeans as I tore open the condom packet with my teeth. By the time I had got it out he was stood with his cock in his hand so I reached down and rolled the condom on before glancing behind me to find something to sit on. 

Just to the side of us there was a shelf that was about the height of Brian’s waist and he clearly saw it too because before waiting for me to say anything he shoved everything on the shelf to the side and lifted me effortlessly into his arms, placing me on the shelf with ease. I opened my legs and looked up at him, just in time to see him take a step towards me, settling in between my thighs. 

As I looked up I saw him watching me, bottom lip between his teeth as he waited for me to ready myself. I nodded almost imperceptibly and watched as without hesitation he guided his cock towards my moist opening and buried himself inside of me with a dull slap. 

A shiver ripped through me as his hands took hold of my hips again so that he could pull out of me before sinking all the way back inside me with ease, my back arching in pleasure as he grasped me and made sure that he was able to work his whole length inside of me. 

He started to slowly move his body so that he was able to ease out of me before slamming back inside me mercilessly and I looked up to see a bead of sweat appear on his upper lip. Leaning in and licking at the translucent bead with my tongue I felt his head tilt so that he could meet my lips with his. 

As soon as our lips met his rhythm became frantic and I found myself raking my nails down his back savagely as he focused on driving us both over the edge with the rapid movements. 

Leaning back I saw him looking down to where our bodies met, watching as his cock disappeared into my slick opening. The look on his face was enough to start my legs shaking as I felt my insides quicken and my body heat as I realised that I still had the power to make him feel like this. 

Sensing me watching him he looked up and put his arms around me so that he could pull me closer. Our bodies were now slamming against one another and I listened to the sounds of our skin slapping together as I sensed him getting closer to his release. 

Wanting to watch him as he came I pushed gently on his chest so that he could lean back and looked up into his eyes. As our eyes met I felt his body start to buckle and the sensation of him twitching inside me was enough to throw me over the edge. Leaning my head back I let out a moan and bit down on my lip to stop myself from crying out. 

Brian pulled me close and I felt his body twitch a couple more times before finally we were both still, my pussy clenching and contracting around him as my orgasm subsided and I listened to the panting breaths coming from us begin to slow down.

He raised his face from my neck, where he had lowered it to muffle his cries and his eyes met mine. 

Seeing that he was about to say something I quickly lifted a finger to his lips to stop him from speaking before slipping off the shelf. I hurriedly reached down to pull my knickers back up and ran my hands through my hair, hoping that it wasn’t as dishevelled as I imagined before I pulled my dress back down into place.

Knowing that I would only be able to buy myself a couple of minutes once I left the store room I looked up at him and nearly felt myself crumble when I saw him watching me, his forehead covered in a light sheen of sweat, his eyes shining brightly. 

“I’ll go first.” I told him, grimacing when I heard my voice come out shakily. “I’ll meet you by the bar.”

He nodded, reaching up to mop his brow as I turned back to the door. Before I could get to the door he reached out for me but I shook my head, knowing that any more contact with him was likely to make me give in and throw myself into his arms.

Hurrying out and closing the door behind me I made my way over to the table where I found Beth and Mike sitting next to each other at the table.

“I’m heading back to the hotel.” I told her leaning down to kiss her cheek. “I’ll see you in the morning. Have a good time.”

“Where have you…” 

I cut her off with a look before she could say anything else and she quieted instantly. “I’ll talk to you in the morning.” 

With that I reached down for my jacket and shrugged into it, refusing to think about what had just happened until I was back in the hotel room. I ran out of the club and thankfully found that there were several cabs waiting. Knowing that Brian could be seconds behind me I jumped into one and gave the driver the address of the hotel, only letting out a deep breath as he pulled away from the curb and pulled into traffic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always for the comments and thanks for reading :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes things are just meant to be...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it guys.. I'm looking forward to trying something new again.

It was only when I sat down on the bed, safely encased back in the hotel room, that I realised how stupid I had been. While my body craved Brian and what we had done had undoubtedly felt good, mind-blowingly good in fact, I was not going to jump straight back into something after what had happened. 

By not believing me when I told him about my past he had hurt me deeply and I refused to let it be forgotten about. What I had said to Mike in the interview had been true. I had always tried to surround myself with support and positivity and could not be with someone that wouldn’t even hear me out when the shit hit the fan, let   
alone someone that could turn their back on me when I needed them most. I deserved more after the way I had let Ross treat me. I thought Brian had been different.

After 5 minutes laying on the bed and allowing myself the luxury of remembering the way my body felt with Brian wrapped around me and deep inside me I decided that I needed a shower and stood up. It was time to forget about it and move on. I was 2 steps away from the bathroom when I heard a knock at the door. 

Hoping against hope that it wasn’t Brian I padded softly across the room and was dismayed to look through the peephole and see his face. I stood there quietly, making sure not to make any noise but Brain was clearly determined, as a minute later he started to pound incessantly on the door.

“I know you are in there Emma!” he shouted. “Open the door.” 

“Go away!” I yelled. 

“If you think that after what just happened I’m going to let you get away without talking to me then you’re wrong.” He replied, frustration clear in his voice. “I will stand here and knock all night if I have to.”

As if to make his point he started to bang on the door again.

Seeing that I had no choice I decided to face him and took a deep breath to steady myself. I opened the door and took a step back, watching as he strolled into the room and spun around to face me.

Closing the door I took a breath and turned to look at him and was surprised when I felt his lips meet mine. Desperate to give in to the sweet sensations our mouths created when working together but knowing that I would regret it, I pulled away and steeled myself to look up and face him.

“I can’t do this Brian.” I told him. Before he could reach out for me again I walked across the room to give myself some distance and sat down on the end of the bed.

“Emma, I’m so sorry.” He started. “I’ve missed you so much.” 

I shook my head. “Brian you’ve avoided me for days. You can’t just come in here now and expect everything to be ok again. What happened in the club was a mistake.”

He took a step towards me but I put my hand up to stop him and luckily he took the hint.

“Emma, I don’t know what to say. I wish I could take everything back but I can’t.”

“The things you said to me were inexcusable.” I stated, my mouth curving into a grimace as once again an image of him looking at me coldly flashed through my mind.

I saw his face fall but didn’t let it stop me. “Brian, I’m sorry you had to read about my past online but you crossed the line.” 

I was surprised when he nodded and came to stand in front of me, crouching down so that I didn’t have to look up. “I know.” He agreed, meeting my eyes. “I don’t know what to say. I think I was just hurt that I had to read about it online.” 

“That doesn’t matter.” I replied stonily. “The things you said were so fucking cruel. How could you say them things to me? I thought we had something together.” 

Brian winced but held my gaze. “I’m an asshole Emma. I shouldn’t have said those things. I can’t even begin to tell you how sorry I am.”

Knowing that I was close to giving in I pulled myself up onto my feet and turned towards the door. “It’s not good enough.” 

“I miss you so much Emma.” He told me. “These last days have been hell for me.”

Ignoring his comments I walked over to the hotel room door and pulled it open before turning back to face him. “I think you should go.”

Brian shook his head, refusing to move. “Can we at least talk about this some more?” 

I took a deep breath and turned my head so that I didn’t have to look at him. “Please go, Brian.” 

I heard him get to his feet with a sigh and watched as his shadow crossed the room and he was stood in front of me. “I’m not giving up Emma.”

“You devastated me Brian.” I whispered, still not daring to look at him. “I can’t forget that.”

I took a deep breath as I felt him drop a soft kiss onto my cheek, closing my eyes so that I didn’t have to look at his face. 

“I’ll make this better.” He vowed, close enough that I could smell the whisky on his breath. “I promise.”

I heard the door close softly and knew he was gone and found myself letting my breath out in a rush, my eyes lifting to confirm that I was now alone. Seeing that he was indeed gone I felt myself relax and went and layed on the bed, pulling the pillow over to me so that I could curl around it. 

 

Hearing a knock at the door I looked at the clock to see that it was not yet half 9 and guessed that it must be Beth, wanting to know what had happened last night. Slightly surprised to note that I didn’t feel as hungover as I thought I would be I grinned and wondered idly how her date had gone. 

Stretching my arms above my head before rubbing the sleep from my eyes I padded over to the door and opened it. As soon as I saw who was stood there my mouth fell open but I quickly regained my composure.

“Morning.” Brian said smiling, his eyes flicking down to take in my battered old t-shirt and boy shorts. 

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I realised instantly that this was a stupid question, his arms were full of flowers, it was pretty clear why he was stood there.

“These are for you.” He told me, nodding his head to inside the room. “Can I put them down?”

Not wanting things to be awkward I decided that I was going to roll with this and let him get it out of his system. “Sure.” I mumbled, before taking a step back.

He put the massive bouquet of flowers down before taking a step towards me, his mouth curving into a frown when I stepped back out of his reach, pulling at the bottom of my shorts to try and cover more of my legs.

“Want to do something today, just the two of us?” he asked hopefully. 

I shook my head sadly. “Brian, this isn’t something that can be fixed with one bouquet of flowers.” 

“Look, I was a jackass.” He stated, frustration creeping into his voice. “I know that. Tell me what I can do to make things better Emma. I need things to go back to the way they were.”

I looked up at him and felt the urge to throw myself into his arms but knew that I couldn’t, no matter how much I wanted to. “I don’t know if you can.” I said shaking my head.

“I’ll find a way.” He said, surprising me by breaking into a wide smile. “Trust me.”

I watched, mouth wide open as he walked out and shut the door behind him, winking at me before he disappeared from view. 

Walking towards the bathroom I sighed, part of me hoping that he wouldn’t keep this up and part of me praying that he would. It was going to take a lot to make me forgive him but I hoped deep down that he was going to try because every part of me ached to be back in his arms. I had never felt as comfortable with anyone as I had with Brian and the sex had been literally out of this world. He was someone that I thought I could trust but he had hurt me deeply and if we were going to get past it, well it was going to take some time.

 

I ended up spending the day with Beth, wandering around the city we were in and taking in some sights just the two of us. Luckily she was so pre-occupied with her own love life that she didn’t hassle me to talk about Brian. It had only come up briefly. 

“So you sent him packing?” Beth asked once I had told her about his midnight visit to my room after what had happened in the club. 

“I had to Beth.” I replied with a nod. “I can’t let him just come waltzing back into my life because he has realised what a jackass he has been.”

“Well you could actually, no-one would judge you for it.” She told me smiling.

“It’s not about what everyone thinks. I can’t get over how he acted. He was fucking nasty to me remember?”

Beth nodded. “Of course I remember.” With this a dark look crossed her face, she was still annoyed at how he acted too. “But the truth is that anyone can see that you two should be together.” 

I shook my head. “I thought so too but after what he did, I’m not so sure.”

Beth reached out and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear and gave me a smile. “Just see how things go. I’ve got your back whatever happens. You know that right?” 

I nodded and leaned in so that she could drop her hands around my shoulders for a brief hug. “I know sweetie. I love you for it.” 

Not wanting to dwell on things I shook my head and smiled up at her. “So tell me more about your date…” 

 

 

That night before the show we all ended up sitting together in the bar and I couldn’t help but smile seeing everyone chatting away and having fun like we used to. I kept my distance from Brian but noticed him watching me often and found myself hiding a smile. While deep down I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to keep this up forever, I was determined to try, he needed to see how much he had hurt me and I was not going to roll over and give in after what he had done.

Things on stage were getting better, the crowd was starting to pick up even more and it seemed like things were getting back to how they were before. Chris let me know that the fans were starting to let up on twitter and the like and while there were still some hardcore fans slating me, it was starting to die down. 

Our publicist Jane was keeping us posted on things and there were requests coming in for interviews and she had even arranged for us to meet with some companies that were interested in managing us. She told us that it was looking more and more like we could secure a record deal by the end of the tour, which was amazing because we had several songs of our own ready to go and would love to start performing our original stuff.

We were hitting the road early in the morning so we decided to call it a night pretty soon after the gig and I found myself yawning as me and Chris walked down the corridor to our rooms. The others had all headed upstairs as soon as we got back but Chris had talked me into having a quick drink, telling me that he was still buzzing from the show and needed a nightcap. 

Finally upstairs, I opened my door and took a step inside but had to do a double take when I saw that the room was filled with flowers and balloons, brightly emblazoned with the words ‘I’m sorry.’

All of a sudden I sensed someone behind me and looked up to see Brian stood next to me in the doorway. I shot a glance up to Chris, who was walking towards his room but had time to shoot me a wink over his shoulder before disappearing into his room. 

“Brian…” I started but he cut me off. 

“Emma don’t say anything.” He told me, reaching out to cup my face in his hands. 

I found myself unable to move but my mind filled with images of him walking away from me, replaying the moment that he had called me a whore and I felt myself stiffen. 

Shaking my head, I shook the images away and took a step away from him.

“When I said that this couldn’t be fixed by one bouquet of flowers I wasn’t hinting for you to fill my hotel room.” I told him, trying to hide a smile. 

“I will show you how sorry I am, Emma.” He replied adamantly. “This is only the start.” 

I met his gaze, unable to resist looking up at him. “It’s going to take more than flowers Brian.” 

“More than flowers it is then.” He promised, a grin splitting his face in two. 

“This isn’t funny.” I said shaking my head. “You really fucking hurt me Brian.”

“I know.” He replied, his tone becoming serious as the smile fell off of his face. “I would do anything to take back what I said.” 

I looked up at him and saw his eyes shining with regret but it wasn’t enough. “Goodnight Brian.”

Brian nodded and took a step towards me but I put my hand up to stop him. Shaking his head sadly he stepped out of the room and smiled wanly as I took hold of the door. “See you tomorrow.”

Closing the door I walked over to the bed and noticed that there was a massive stuffed bear sat propped up against the pillows. It was clutching a heart and like the many balloons around the room it was holding a scroll emblazoned with the words ‘I’m sorry.’ 

I hurriedly got ready for bed and climbed into the sheets, pulling the bear next to me so that I could lay my head on the soft fur of its head as I closed my eyes, the smell of flowers thick in the air.

 

Things over the next couple of days just got better and better. While I tried to avoid being left on my own with Brian things between us had settled down and I found myself slowly warming to him. The others were clearly relieved at this turn of events and everyone seemed happier now that the dust had settled and things were starting to get back to normal.

Whenever we checked into a new hotel I would walk into my room to find that Brian had arranged to have it filled with flowers and while his behaviour was thawing me a little I still found myself unable to forget what he had said to me. I knew that this had all stemmed from the decisions that I had made in the past but I needed to be with someone that would have my back no matter what happened and this had made me question whether Brian was able to do that for me. I didn’t want to throw myself back into his arms only for something else to happen and for things to go wrong again. While the end of me and Ross had come as a relief I knew that if things were to go south with me and Brian that I wouldn’t be able to recover. I had never felt the way about anyone as I did about Brian and I needed to be sure that he was someone that I could rely on before we moved forwards.

The day of the second article dawned and Sal offered to come with me to the nearest news stand. We met for some breakfast before heading out of the hotel and walking down the street towards the busier part of town.

“So things are settling down huh?” he asked. 

I grinned, having been wondering all through breakfast how long it would take him to bring everything up. He had held his tongue all morning and we had indulged in small talk while we had eaten though I could tell he was itching to bring Brian into conversation.

“Looks that way.” I said casually, curious to where he was going with this. 

“Are you really not going to forgive him?” Sal asked, not needing to say Brian’s name, it being obvious who he was talking about. 

“Sal he called me a whore.” I said, meeting his gaze. 

Sal nodded and pulled me close, putting his arm around my shoulder as we wandered down the street. “Believe me Emma, we all balled him out over that.” 

“How can I just forget about it though?” I mused, my eyes scanning the streets for a news stand. “I need to be with someone that I can trust.”

Sal came to a stop, pulling me around so that I was facing him. “It’s not about forgetting Emma.” He told me. “But he really cares about you and I know that he would do anything in the world to take back what he said and did.” 

“I know Sal.” I replied. “But it still hurts right now, ok?” 

I saw sympathy fill his eyes before he pulled me into a hug. “Us men can be dicks can’t we?” 

I nodded and laughed, glad that he was leaving it at that, stopping when I saw a news stand just down the road from us.

Pulling out of his arms I grabbed his hand and hurriedly made my way towards the stand, where I bought two copies of Rolling Stone magazine before pulling Sal towards the nearest benches to sit down and read. 

This time I was the last to finish and looked up to see Sal smiling as he waited for me to get to the end of the article. 

“Well it certainly sets things straight.” He said wryly, as I looked up at him.

I nodded and glanced back down at the article, where once again they had run a picture of me and Brian. This time there were actually 2 pictures. One of them was from the time we had made our way to the mini-van, the night that happened to be the first time we had slept together, and the other one was from a time we had wandered around the city we had been in at the time and had ended up grabbing lunch in a small nondescript deli. I had never seen this picture before and it was hard not to feel wistful when I looked at it. 

The photo showed us having lunch together and Brian was reaching up to wipe a blob of mayonnaise off of the side of my mouth. I remembered him brushing his fingers over my lips as he made me laugh about something. The picture had caught him looking at me adoringly while I tilted my head back and laughed. I ached to go back to that day, things were so simple. If only I knew then how things would end up, I would have told him every sorry story from my past right then and there so that nothing could come between us. 

“It’s a great picture.” Sal added, looking down at the article. 

“What?” I questioned, having missed what he said having been daydreaming. 

“Great picture.” He repeated.

Sal smiled as if he knew what I was thinking and pointed to the main picture accompanying the article, a shot taken when I was on the stage. 

“Thanks.” I mumbled, dipping my head and re-reading the paragraph about Brian. The article made it clear that me and Brian had been involved but didn’t say much other than to quote what I had said and say that things had clearly ‘not worked out.’

They had quoted my ex-boss in saying that I had never indulged in ‘relations’ with clients so hopefully the fans would now stop giving me shit for something that had been proven to be not true. Overall I came out of the article looking pretty good and just like the first article had left me happy I read this and come out feeling like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. 

Rolling the magazine up and stuffing it into my bag I stood up and waited for Sal to get to his feet. “I fancy some shopping.”   
Sal grinned and nodded. “Lead the way.”

 

We spent the day roaming the city and by the time we got back to the hotel I found myself feeling happier than I had done in days. Sal had let me lead him around many shops and we had ended up spending way too much, only stopping in our mission to spend lots of money to grab something to eat around lunchtime. By the time we headed back towards the hotel it was nearing time to head off to the show and for a change I was actually looking forward to taking to the stage.

“So which one should I go for tonight?” I asked as we walked through the lobby and headed towards the elevator. 

“The yellow one.” He grinned. “You looked amazing in it.” 

“It’s not too girly?” I checked.

Sal shook his head. “Trust me.”

I smiled back at him and we rode the elevator up to the rooms to find Beth standing outside my room. 

“Where have you two been?” she asked as we strolled towards her. “You have been gone all day.”

“Where do you think?” I asked holding up my bags.

She grinned and shook her head. “Fair point.” She replied. “Just came to tell you we are all having dinner in half an hour before heading over to the venue.”

I shook my head. “I’m just going to grab some room service.” I told her. “It’s been a long day.”

“Please Emma.” she said coming to stand in front of me, giving me her puppy dog eyes and knowing that I wouldn’t be able to resist. 

I saw Sal behind her rolling his eyes good naturedly and felt myself smile. “Ok.” I laughed. “I better go get ready then. See you in half hour.” 

I opened my door hurriedly, dumping the bags on the bed before jumping in the shower. Never a minute of peace on the road…

 

 

Just less than half an hour later I stood in front of the mirror and found myself smiling at my reflection. I had taken Sal’s opinion on board and was wearing a light yellow sun dress. It was fitted around the top but billowed out over my hips to land just below my knees. Not wanting to look too dressy I stepped into a pair of my old chucks and ruffled up my hair, putting on a lot of eyeliner up to accentuate my large hazel eyes. 

Not wanting to be the last one to get downstairs I grabbed my bag and checked I had everything that I needed before walking into the corridor and turning to close the door behind me.

“Wow Emma.” Joe exclaimed, seeing me stood in the hall as he rounded the corner. “You look great.” 

I turned to him and smiled, ready for a good night. “So do you.” I replied. ‘Nice shirt.” 

He grinned back at me, doing a funny dance to make me laugh as we headed downstairs. 

As soon as the elevator opened I noticed that everyone apart from Beth and Murr was already downstairs and felt my eyes drawn to Brian, who was watching me. His eyes followed me all the way across the lobby and remained on me as I made my way over to stand in front of them all.

“You look amazing.” He told me quietly, so that no-one else heard.

I felt my cheeks colour and itched to press my body against his. As if he was trying to figure out what I was thinking his head tiled to the side inquisitively and I had to drag my eyes away from his before my willpower deserted me entirely and I threw myself into his arms.

Luckily it was at that moment that Beth and Murr appeared so we made our way to the mini-van. The journey passed in a blur, my mind trying but failing to focus on anything but Brian sat a couple of feet away from me on the seat across from mine, looking edible in a white graphic print t-shirt and a pair of casual black jeans. 

Dinner was a lively affair, things were now totally back to normal and while I couldn’t help watching Brian and aching for things to be back the way they were I was still determined to show him how much he had hurt me. After finishing our meal we all headed back to the car and got inside and I settled myself on a seat across from Brian, making an effort not to look at him even though I could feel his eyes on me.

As the mini-van came to stop everyone climbed out and bounded towards the doors. We made our way towards the venue and as had become tradition we split into 2 groups as me, Beth, Chris and Rick headed to do our sound check. 

“You’re starting to thaw.” Beth accused, shooting me a grin as someone from the venue led us through some corridors towards the stage.

“So what if I am?” I shot back wryly. 

“Was just an observation Em.” She told me fondly. “You are stronger than me. I would have caved ages ago. The guy is head over heels for you.” 

I slapped her lightly on the shoulder before we stepped onto the stage, trying to hide my smile. 

“Shall we slip in an original?” Rick suggested as we took our places on the stage.

I looked at the others and saw them all looking at me. “I don’t see why not.” 

“It’s not like we have anything to lose.” Chris chipped in.

“Ok, which one?” Beth asked after it had been decided. 

We decided on a song we had written a couple of years ago, called ‘Wishes.’ It was our favourite song out of all of our originals and it always got a really good response whenever we had played it at our gigs. We ran through it to check we still had it down and I was surprised when we finished it and I heard applause coming from the back of the venue. 

Looking to see who was out there I was surprised when I saw the guys come walking down the aisles and file up the stairs until they were all up on the stage with us.   
Brian came to stand next to me and I felt my heart begin to race when he reached out to put a hand on my shoulder and leaned into my ear. “That was incredible.”   
With that he walked over to Beth where he asked if he could have a go on her guitar before looking over and shooting me a smile. He still had the ability to make me blush so I quickly averted my gaze and walked over to Rick and the guys, who were stood around the drum kit. 

We chatted for a while but decided to head back to the dressing rooms. Beth and Brian decided to stay behind on the stage, messing around with the guitar until the fans were let in so I headed over to Sal and grinned as he put an arm around my waist. 

“I thought Brian was going to combust when he saw you come out of the elevator.” He whispered conspiratorially. 

I rolled my eyes but felt my heartbeat accelerate as I remembered the way that Brian had looked at me. I knew that look well but gone were the times when the look had been a prelude to something else.

The guys and I sat around chilling in the dressing room and Brian and Beth only turned up when they had been told to clear the stage to let the fans in. They walked into the room talking in hushed tones, stopping when they saw everyone look up at them. I saw Beth wink at him before coming over to me but when I shot her a questioning look she merely smiled and shrugged. There was clearly something going on, they were acting shifty and I wondered idly what they were planning.  
Deciding that it wasn’t worth worrying about, I put it out of my mind and scrolled through my phone, spending some time updating my family on life on the road. It wasn’t long before me, Beth, Rick and Chris were called up to the stage and so the guys wished us luck before we headed towards the auditorium. 

Putting our original onto the set list was a stroke of genius and I was shocked and delighted to see that it got the biggest cheer of all. I was also surprised to see that the hall was pretty packed even before we had come out so it looked like the fans were beginning to turn. I wondered if the article had helped but was soon distracted when the others launched into another song and I heard my cue to start singing. 

It was soon over and I felt Beth and Chris take my hands for our bow. The crowd roared and I let myself soak up the cheers as I started to let myself believe that the tide had finally turned. It still looked like things could work out and more than anything I wanted this to be the start of something special for us. We had worked hard for this and I would never be able to forgive myself if I was the reason for things not working out. 

“That was amazing!” Chris exclaimed when we had got backstage. “Did you hear the cheers after ‘Wishes?’” 

I nodded and grinned. “I think this is the start of something huge guys.” 

“I think it was the start of something huge the day we stepped onto that tour bus.” Beth corrected me with a wink.

We headed back to the dressing room where we found the guys talking amongst themselves but as soon as we stepped in the room they all fell quiet and spun to face us. 

“Let’s go and rehearse.” Joe said, not missing a beat. 

They all got to their feet and I found myself watching as they walked down the corridor, all of them having bent in to kiss me on the cheek before I had chance to say   
anything. 

“What’s going on?” I asked the others once we had all sat down and gotten comfortable. 

They all looked at me and shrugged before starting to chat away about the show and what other originals they thought would go down well. 

It had been about an hour when I was just replying to a message from someone back home asking how things were when I noticed that Rick, Beth and Chris had jumped to their feet. 

“Let’s go and watch the end of the show.” Beth suggested. 

I shook my head. “I’m just gonna sit and chill for a bit. Have fun.” I told them dipping my head to look back at my phone.

I was still at the point where I didn’t want to watch Brian up on stage. He looked so happy and carefree. It reminded me of the times when it had been me that made him look like that.

“Come on.” Rick urged. “We’re not taking no for an answer.” 

I shrugged and gave them a questioning look but found myself being pulled out of the room by Chris, who put his arm around my shoulder and directed me towards the hall that would lead us to the main part of the venue. 

Deciding that it was easier to go along with them than argue I followed Beth and Rick through to the lobby where we easily found one of the doors that would lead us into the auditorium. 

Steeling myself for the moment that I would see Brian up on the stage I followed Beth through the door and found myself standing at the back of the room. Luckily the crowd was so focused on the stage that no-one turned around but I couldn’t help noticing that the guys all looked over at us from the stage. In fact, it looked almost like they had been waiting for us to come in.

“What’s going on?” I asked Beth quietly, not wanting to draw any attention to us.

“Just wait.” She said cryptically. 

I turned back to the stage and felt my heart begin to pound as the guys grew quiet and Brian looked out to meet my gaze. Joe, Murr and Sal remained silent as Brian walked to the front of the stage, waiting for the crowd to grow quiet.

“So it may come as a surprise to some of you that I am going to do this up here but I owe someone an apology.” He announced. I noticed suddenly how nervous he looked and felt my hands grow clammy as I realised that something out of the ordinary was about to happen.

Titters ran through the crowd and I turned to Chris, Beth and Rick, who were all watching me expectantly, as were Joe, Murr and Sal from up on the stage. 

“As you may have read online, recently I had started seeing Emma from our support act, but something happened that caught me by surprise and I handled it pretty badly, well actually, I acted like a total asshole.”

I shook my head, noticing that the fans in front of us had noticed me. Wanting to get the hell out of there I spun towards the doors, wanting to make my escape but stopping when I heard Brian call my name from up on the stage.

“Emma, please don’t go!” he called, taking a step forward until he was right on the edge of the stage. “Just hear me out.” 

The desperation in his voice caused me to spin around to face him and I vaguely noticed that the fans were now watching me, their heads whipping from me to Brian almost as if they were watching a game of tennis. 

“I know I fucked things up Emma and I will probably never be able to make that up to you but I am asking you…” He stopped to run his hands through his hair in a   
gesture that I knew meant he was really nervous. “No, actually I am begging you. Please give me another chance.” 

I looked up at him on the stage and saw that he was waiting for me to say something. The auditorium was now silent, everyone waiting with bated breath for me to reply. You would be able to hear a pin drop.

As if Brian knew that I was undecided he took a step closer to the edge of the stage and smiled, his attention focused on me as I stood watching him.

“I know I don’t deserve it but this last week or so has been hellish without you.” He went on, seeing that I wasn’t going to say anything. “I can’t go on like this. Not after knowing how good it is when we’re together.”

I let my gaze slip to the fans nearest and saw them all staring at me, waiting for me to say something.

“Emma I know you feel it too. I didn’t know I could feel this way about someone.” Brian went on from up on the stage. “We belong together. You know we do.”

My body ached for him but still something stopped me. My heart was screaming at me to go to him but some small part of my mind was holding me back. 

“Emma, please.” He pleaded, his tone becoming desperate. “I know this probably isn’t something I should tell you for the first time in front of thousands of people, but I love you.”

As I heard the last 3 words he uttered my eyes filled with tears. I heard a collective gasp go up from the crowd and it was if time stopped.

I looked at him up on the stage and I knew from the look in his eyes that he was telling the truth. The last of my resolve disappeared in a single heartbeat and I felt my mouth curve into an ear splitting smile. I took a step towards him and saw his face transform as he realised that I had made up my mind. As I started to walk down the aisle the relief on his face was clear for all to see. 

Not even realising that I was doing it I broke into a run, desperate to be back in his arms and I watched as Brian made his way down the steps and broke into a jog. We were half way down the aisle when we reached each other and I found myself in his arms. He lifted me with ease and his mouth crashed down on mine as I felt my feet leave the floor. I felt myself spun round as the crowd went wild and started to cheer around us but the only thing I cared about was the feeling of Brian’s lips against my own and the fact that I was back in his arms. Brian put me back down and I felt my legs shaking as he pulled me into another embrace.

“I love you too.” I told him breathlessly as he pulled me into a hug so tight I thought that I might just burst. 

As he let me step back he kept his hands on my arms as he looked down into my eyes and dropped a brief kiss to my lips. Just then it sunk in where we were and we both looked around us at the audience to see them all staring.

Everyone was on their feet and every single person in the room was cheering and clapping, many of the girls not bothering to hold back their tears as they watched the emotional scene play out in front of them. 

Before I had chance to realise what he was doing I felt myself being pulled onto the stage and found myself standing in front of more than a thousand fans, the cheers showing no signs of abating. Brian took my hand and our eyes met before we laughingly gave a bow to the audience.

I scanned the room and saw that Beth, Chris and Rick had moved further down into the aisle and were now stood with their arms around each other, cheering just as wildly as the crowd as tears streamed down Beth’s cheeks. 

I shot a look behind me and saw Murr, Joe and Sal cheering as well before focusing my attention back on Brian, who was standing staring down at me. 

I met his gaze and smiled up at him happily, shooting a glance at the crowd before looking back at him with a laugh. “Erm, can we get off the stage now?”

He shot me a wink before pulling the mic up to speak and the crowd quickly died down to hear what he had to say. “Well there it is guys.” He started, the crowd growing quiet to hear what he had to say. “Proof that sometimes, if it is meant to be, you may just get a second chance.”

I moved closer to him and put an arm around his waist as he carried on talking to the crowd. “And with that…” he told them happily. “Me and this beautiful and amazingly talented lady are going to go and make up for lost time.”

The crowd once again broke into cheers and whistles and I saw Beth, Rick and Chris laugh from where they were stood in between the aisles. I felt my cheeks flame but didn’t have time to feel embarrassed for long as Brian turned to me and hauled me effortlessly into his arms before leaning down to press his lips tenderly against my own. 

I let my eyes flutter closed, kissed him back and felt the air around me move as he walked us off of the stage to rapturous applause and cheers, finally putting me   
down when we had got back behind the curtains. 

We heard Joe, Murr and Sal start to talk and bring the show to a close but I didn’t care enough to focus on what they were saying because I looked up to find that Brian was staring down at me, his eyes boring into mine. 

“Brian that was amazing.” I said, still breathless from what had just happened. “I can’t believe that you just did that.”

He took a step forward and lifted his hands to either side of my face, crouching down slightly so that he could look me in the eyes. “I love you Emma.” He repeated. “I don’t care who knows it. I'm not going to lose you again.”

I felt my eyes fill with tears as I looked into his eyes and realised that this was it for us. Nothing would ever come between us ever again. “I love you too Brian.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the amazing comments. It keeps me writing!

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


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